The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams had very different weekends as they tried to replicate stellar results in last season’s LSU Tiger Cross Country Festival.The LSU men won their first race of the season — finishing first in their home meet for the second consecutive year. Junior Andy Florek, sophomore Richard Chautin and senior Jacob Simmons finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, to lead the Tigers to victory. Their team’s score edged out Louisiana Tech in the field of 11 teams for first place by two points, 54-56. “The men did great,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “It’s always good to protect home and win your home meet.”Florek recorded a new personal best 8k time of 25:28.1, beating his time of 26:30.47 in the 2007 Tiger Invitational by more than a minute. “This is probably Andy’s best race he’s ever run in college so far,” Simmons said. “I’m really proud of him for doing that.”Chautin also recorded his personal best 8k time of 25:31.8. The Lady Tigers finished the nine-team women’s race No. 5 with 119 points. Houston won the race with 32 points, followed by Tulane in 2nd place with 61. Senior leader Christina Porter, who finished No. 12 to lead the team in its season opener was sidelined because of illness. Freshman Laura Carleton led the young team, finishing No. 18 with a time of 24:13.7 in the 6k run. “For a freshman running the distance for the second time, she did extremely well,” Elliot said. Senior Kayann Thompson (24:37.2) finished No. 23, and freshman Jenna Henssler (24:47.6) finished No. 26 to round out the Lady Tigers’ top three.Former Lady Tiger Kate Accardo competed independently and finished the race No. 4 in 22:17.5.LSU’s next meet is Saturday at the Auburn Tiger Invitational in Auburn, Ala.”This coming week at Auburn, it’s going to be the toughest competition we’ve faced all year,” Elliott said. “Our results may not be No. 1 on the men’s side, but they probably will compete better and have a better time.”—-Contact Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]