BATON ROUGE -- Junior Joseph Simuchimba claimed the men’s individual title in guiding the LSU men’s cross country team to a first-place finish at their own Tiger Cross Country Festival Saturday morning at the Highland Road Park. The Lady Tigers finished second overall.
The Tigers’ five scorers all finished among the field’s top seven as they tallied a near-perfect 20 points in capturing the team title. McNeese State (57) and Southeastern Louisiana (83) finished second and third, respectively.
On the women’s side, Tulane captured the meet’s team title with 27 points. The Lady Tigers followed with 57 points, while Southeastern Louisiana rounded out the top three with 107 points.
“Overall I thought we preformed well,” said LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott. “I was pleased with the way the men ran and I think the women ran as best as they could considering our top runner was not feeling well.”
Individually, Simuchimba led all runners on the men’s side, finishing the 8K course in an impressive 24:51.55.
“I felt good about the race today,” said Simuchimba. “We had an early lead and I was able to break away from the pack just at the end.”
Not far behind Simuchimba were teammates Jacob Simmons (25:35.21), Michael Hendry (25:58.35) and Elkana Chepsiror (26:08.83). The trio finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Alan Sticker rounded out the scoring for the Tigers, placing seventh overall with a time of 26:31.96.
For the Lady Tigers, Kate Accardo paced the squad with an eighth-place finish and a time of 22:37.83 over the 6K course. Following Accardo across the finish line were Jennifer Radecker (10th, 22:44.23), Erin Vandivort (13th, 23:18.59), Christy Zirkle (15th, 23:24.38) and Katie Dawson (17th, 23:48.66).
Up next, the LSU men’s and women’s teams will travel to Auburn, Ala., for the Tiger Invitational on Sept. 29.
TEAM RESULTS
MEN
1. LSU, 20
2. McNeese State, 57
3. Southeastern Louisiana, 83
4. UL-Lafayette, 88
5. Southern-NO, 146
WOMEN
1. Tulane, 27
2. LSU, 57
3. Southeastern Louisiana, 107
4. UL-Lafayette, 111
5. McNeese State, 114
6. Nicholls State, 126
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Winner plus all LSU runners)
MEN
1, Joseph Simuchimba, LSU, 24:51.55. 3, Jacob Simmons, LSU, 25:35.21. 4, Michael Hendry, 25:58.35. 5, Elkana Chepsiror, LSU, 26:08.83. 7, Alan Sticker, LSU , 26:31.56. 8, Michael Florek, LSU, 26:31.96. 9, Richard Chautin, LSU, 27:01.88. 11, Reuben Twijukye, 27:53.61. 14, Ken Ehrhardt, 28:00.79. 19, Kyle Hecker, 28:51. 65. 26, Harold Boutte, 29:21.79. 29, Jeffrey Adolph, 30:13.15.
WOMEN
1, Tinette Burger, McNeese State, 21:45.10. 8, Katherine Accardo, LSU, 22:37.83. 11, Lindsay Day, 23:00.15. 13, Erin Vandivort, 23:18.59. 15, Christy Zirkle, 23:24.38. 17, Katie Dawson, 23:48.66. 20, Megan Broussard, 23:53.69. 32, Kristi Denton, 26:04.33.