HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana men's and women's cross country teams make a short trip to Baton Rouge Saturday for the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park. Most of Southeastern's student-athletes are very familiar with the course, having competed there in either high school or college.

 

Senior Henry Rop has his sights on back-to-back wins, following last Saturday's victory at the Azalea City Classic in Mobile, Ala. Rop needed 15:21.63 to complete the 5K event, over 10 seconds better than the second place finisher. The Southeastern men's team took third place behind West Florida and South Alabama.

 

Rop finished second in the LSU Invitational in 2009, crossing the line less than three tenths of a second behind teammate Kalphys Kemboi.

 

“This is an important meet for us,” head coach Sean Brady said. “Anytime we see LSU, we want to represent ourselves well. Plus, several of our student-athletes are from the Baton Rouge area, and they'll be running with chips on their shoulders.”

 

The Southeastern women also earned a third place finish in Mobile, trailing South Alabama and West Florida. Individually, senior Naomi Jeruto (19:11.64) finished fourth, followed by senior Whitney Curry (19:52.93) in fifth.

 

The women's event will be 6K, while the men's race will cover an 8K distance, the same lengths as the Southland Conference championships.

 

“It's a good course and a challenging course,” Brady said. “If the weather is okay, it can be a fast course, so we could see some times that we like. It will be our best barometer, at this point, to see where we stack up against the rest of the conference schools.”

 

Southeastern will face Southland rivals McNeese State and Northwestern State, along with in-state foes Southern, Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe, in addition to home standing LSU. Other teams include Houston and Jackson State.

 

Competition begins with the women's race at 8:35 a.m., followed by the men's contest at 9:45 a.m.