The football team isn’t the only Tiger squad at Mississippi State this week.
The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams begin their season Saturday at the Mississippi State Invitational in Starkville, Miss.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers said they expect to have a stronger showing than last year’s ninth and 11th place respective finishes in the Southeastern Conference Championships.
The Tigers return four runners and the Lady Tigers return five runners who competed in the meet.
“We’re going to be able to surprise some people and do some good things,” said junior Roger Cooke. “As a team, we have goals of winning our home meet and placing in the mid pack at SECs.”
Cooke, a two-year letterman, posted a career-best 26:47.49 time in the 8000-meter run at last season’s 2010 Mississippi State invitational. Sophomore Alden Heaphy and senior Cullen Doody also posted career bests of 26:27.55 and 26:26.18, respectively, at the same meet.
The Tigers also return senior Richard Chautin, their fastest runner in 2010, with a personal best of 24:41.13 for 8000 meters. Chautin finished 24th in the SEC championships and 31st in the NCAA South Central Regional qualifiers.
These four and redshirt freshman Bryan Mutell replace four-year lettermen Alan Sticker and Michael Florek as well as four others who graduated last year.
“Cullen has really stepped up in that leadership role,” Mutell said.
Mutell said three new runners have been impressive during practice and should make an impact.
“We lost two of our strong guys from last year, but I think we bring back a really good crew this year,” Cooke said. “It’s a team that can definitely live up to the standard of last year’s team and maybe excel it.”
Elliott said this team is a little deeper than last year’s squad and that a top-five SEC finish is possible.
Cooke said the team is running closer together in times, whereas in seasons past they were more spread out.
“We’re actually coming together as a team now,” Cooke said.
The Lady Tigers will run without one of last season’s fastest runners, senior Laura Carleton, who enrolled in the Flores MBA program this fall and will redshirt this season.
“I’m planning to run the LSU, McNeese and hopefully Chile Pepper meets unattached,” Carleton said.
The Lady Tigers return former Nicholls State transfers, juniors Dakota and Brea Goodman, who ran personal bests of 18:45.96 and 18:47.90 for 5000-meters, respectively.
Juniors Leigh-Ann Naccari and Laura Aleman and sophomore middle distance specialist Charlene Lipsey, who competed in last season’s SEC championships, also return.
They finished with 279 points counted against them in the SEC championship, 28 points behind 10th-place finisher South Carolina.
“We were only about one or two consistent runners from having much better results than we did,” Elliott said.
The teams run in the Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 15 before finishing with the SEC Championship on Oct. 31.
“Chile Pepper is the biggest meet we have,” Lipsey said. “It’s full of a lot of competition, so I’m really looking forward to that meet.”
If either team does exceptionally well this year, they’ll compete in the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 12, attempting to qualify for the National Championships.
“You want all seven athletes to run well and run close together and your chances at beating another team are better,” Elliott said. “While they may have one or two better individuals, if you deal with it team wise you can still come out ahead.”
 
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