LAKE CHARLES – Southeastern Louisiana senior Naomi Jerutofinished in eighth place to lead the women’s cross country team at the McNeese State Stampede Saturday morning. Freshman Joseph LeGrange earned a 12th place finish to pace the Southeastern men.
The women’s race covered a distance of 5K, which Jeruto traversed in 18:37.32. She was followed by senior Whitney Curry in 21st (19:11.95) and Bethany Burst in 27th (19:31.67). Lindsey Toups (20:22.30), Heather Fitzhenry (20:33.34), Brittany Blackmon (20:39.02) and Katie Suplee(22:00.67) rounded out the Southeastern contingent.
“Naomi is really asserting herself, running like we would expect her to as a senior,” head coach Sean Brady said. “It’s exciting to see that, at this time of year, she’s really coming on. It was a pretty stacked field. We saw some of the top schools in the Southland and she represented herself very well.”
Team-wise, the Lady Lions placed fourth behind UT Arlington, LSU and Central Arkansas.
On the men’s side, LeGrange completed the four-mile race in 20:26.83. The next best Lion was senior Reese Lee in 29th place, who needed to 21:16.44 to run the course. Other finishers for Southeastern were Seth Cunningham (21:58.75), Paul Arthur (22:00.32), Jesse McDavitt(22:01.95), Dillon Truax (23:03.39), Scott Richardson (23:43.86).
Senior Henry Rop, the individual winner at South Alabama and LSU, was scratched. Coaches opted to hold him out, giving him additional rest as he prepares for the Southland Conference and NCAA Regional meets.
McNeese State won the men’s event, followed by Louisiana Tech, LSU, UT Arlington and Central Arkansas in the top five. Southeastern ended up in sixth.
The Southeastern women’s and men’s cross country teams travel to the Choctaw Open in Clinton, Miss., for their final regular season meet on Saturday, Oct. 16.