The LSU men’s cross country team opened its Southeastern Conference slate with a fifth place finish from a field of eight teams, while the women’s team placed eighth out of nine teams at the Bulldog Stampede held at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens.
UGA runner Simon Ngata led the Bulldogs to a first place finish on the men’s side with a time of 25:44.84 in the 8-kilometer race. The Bulldogs edged Florida by nearly 40 seconds with a total team time of 2:10:51.86 and 26:10.38 team average.
UGA coach Dan Waters said winning against stiff competition is always good, but the Bulldogs did not fully satisfy his expectations.
“Anytime you have a recruit [like Ngata] come in and win against this kind of competition, you’ve got to be happy with that,” Waters said. “But we need to do a better job running as a team.”
LSU junior Andrew Huston and freshman Roland LeBlanc led the Tigers with times of 27:21.10 and 27:29.37, finishing 24th and 30th individually. LSU compiled a team time of 2:18:49.87 and a 27:45.98 team average. The Tigers finished nearly three minutes behind fourth place Wichita State and two minutes ahead of sixth place Central Florida.
On the women’s side, South Florida took the top three spots in the 6 kilometer race with Christa Benton’s first place time of 18:13.02. Vanderbilt took the victory and finished with a total time of 1:34:45.35 and a 18:57.07 team average. Those times edged second place UGA by 17 seconds and third place USF by 62 seconds.
Lady Tigers junior Katie Denton and sophomore Michelle Hymel led LSU with times of 19:49.56 and 20:07.67, finishing 25th and 31st individually. The Lady Tigers finished with a 1:42:55.77 total team time and a 20:35.16 team average. The team finished nearly two minutes behind seventh place Florida Atlantic and 14 minutes ahead of ninth place Mercer.
LSU returns to action Saturday Sept. 27, hosting the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park at 8 a.m. in its only home meet of the season.