One runner.Senior Jacob Simmons trained his whole cross country career to qualify for the NCAA Championships. In his final cross country race in an LSU uniform, he missed his opportunity by one runner. “That’s how the cookie crumbles,” Simmons said. “To be the last man out is pretty impressive. I consider myself to be in the top percentile in the country.”Simmons ran in the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 15 and finished No. 16 with an All-Regional 10k time of 31:26.3. Only a handful of individual qualifiers were selected to move on to the NCAA Championships, because only Texas A&M and Arkansas, who finished No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, were chosen out of the South Central Region to go to the NCAA Championships.Simmons was the first qualifier not selected. “He really wanted it,” said LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott. “Maybe there was something else he could have done to make sure he didn’t miss it by one.”Simmons’ four-year cross country career has come to an end, and he is now focused on track. Simmons said he is ready to move on despite the disappointing end to his cross country career.”It’s time,” Simmons said. “I’ve enjoyed myself here, but I’m ready for the next step.”He began his collegiate cross country career at University of Louisiana – Lafayette in 2004, where he led the Ragin’ Cajuns to its first Sun Belt Conference title in 30 years. Simmons finished the race sixth with a time of 26:17.8. He left ULL for LSU after his freshman season.”It was a tough decision to make,” Simmons said. “I had a great first year, but the program wasn’t going the same place I was going. A lot of the guys were graduating, and I was going to be all by myself.”Simmons went on to run well in his first season as a Tiger, finishing second on the team in the Southeastern Conference Championships with an 8K time of 24:40.88. He finished No. 2 on the team behind junior Joseph Simuchimba in every race in 2007  after a redshirt 2006 season.Simmons said his freshman year was his best because he didn’t have any injuries.”Every year that I ran except for my freshman year, I’ve always had an Achilles problem,” Simmons said. “Or it was always something to do with my legs.”Simmons said his hard work in cross country builds up to track. He said track season is what really counts, despite the friendships he’s made through his cross country career at LSU.  “It’s a warm-up for track because track is where it’s at,” he said. “It gets your legs moving, and you’re ready to rock-n-roll come track.”Simmons said he will probably run the 5k during the indoor track season and the steeplechase during the outdoor season.”I think I’m going to be running the steeplechase and the 5k a lot,” Simmons said. “Whatever Coach Elliot wants me to run that day. He’s a crazy cat, so to speak.”Simmons begins the indoor track season in January and the outdoor season in March. Elliott said Simmons can qualify for the national championships for both the indoor and the outdoor seasons and can use his disappointment as a motivation for his track season. “He has a chance to try and at least finish up his career on a better note than he did cross country,” Elliott said. “He has an opportunity to make it right at track.”
 
—–Contact Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]