Coming off of a win at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival on Sept. 12, the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams finished first and second, respectively, at the LSU Invitational on Sept. 19.
For the Tigers, freshman runner Dajour Braxton continued his success as he notched another first-place finish. Braxton, who also came in first place at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival, finished in 15 minutes, 20.65 seconds.
Following Braxton, junior runner Christian Johnson finished in second place with a time of 15:38.65. Junior runner Blair Henderson and sophomore runner Jack Wilkes came in fourth and fifth place, while freshman runner Hayden Kingfisher finished in seventh place. Sophomore runner DC Lipani and freshman runner Jackson Fountain rounded out the top ten, finishing in ninth and tenth place.
As a team, the Tigers had a first-place victory with 18 points, followed by the University of New Orleans with 64 points and Southeastern Louisiana University with 69 points.
“The men did extremely well, they did what I knew they could do,” said LSU coach Khadevis Robinson. “I am extremely pleased with their performance.”
For the Lady Tigers, senior runner Morgan Schuetz, who finished first at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival, had a third-place finish with a time of 18:02.74. Schuetz finished behind the University of Southern Mississippi’s junior runner Rebecca Ulrich, who crossed the line at 17:44.99, and junior Daphney Stanford at 17:57.10.
Freshman runner Hannah Bourque came in seventh place with a time of 18:56.37, followed by freshman runner Hollie Parker, sophomore runner Rebecca Little and freshman runner Erika Lewis in eighth, ninth and tenth place.
The Lady Tigers finished in second place with 37 points behind the University of Southern Mississippi with 18 points. Southeastern Louisiana finished in third place with 93 points.
Robinson said although the women did well and he thinks they have a little more in them, he takes the blame for the Lady Tigers not putting out their best performance.
“I’ll take the blame on that because I have worked them hard these past two weeks,” Robinson said. “The men worked as a team. They worked together, stayed positive and fought. Once we get that mindset in the women, I think we will be pretty good as far as where we are at with the young team we have on both sides.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will be in action again next as they travel to College Station to compete in the Texas A&M Invitational on Sept. 26.
You can reach Heather Allen on Twitter @Hallen_TDR