Cross Country: Limoh, Robinson Finish 1-2 To Lead Cajuns At Rice Invitational

HOUSTON – Newcomer Stanley Limoh and returning All-Sun Belt Conference performer Beau Robinson earned a 1-2 finish in the men’s 6-kilometer race to lead the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns cross country team to a sixth-place finish at the 41st annual Justin Cooper Rice Invitational on Friday at the Rice Intramural Fields.
 
In the women’s 4K race, Courtney Musgrove clocked a time of 15:15.79 to finish 19th overall and lead the Ragin’ Cajuns women’s team to an eighth-place finish.
 
Texas State claimed the men’s title in the 14-team field with 81 points followed by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (85), McNeese State (110), Lamar (112), Rice (127) and Louisiana (152) following. Rice claimed the women’s event with 31 points followed by Stephen F. Austin (78), Houston (106), LSU (114), Lamar (123), Incarnate Word (140), A&M-Corpus Christi (149) and Louisiana (211) among the 14-team field.
 
Limoh posted a time of 18:46.16 to win the men’s event with Robinson clocking a time of 18:47.54 to finish second.
 
"To go 1-2 in a high quality meet like Rice is very hard to do," head coach Lon Badeaux said. "This is a meet where a couple of kids who run here usually qualify for the (NCAA) national meet. It’s quite an accomplishment to do what they did and how they did it. Our guys ran solid today against a very good field. We need to close the gap with our 3-4-5 runners in the lineup, but we feel confident that we can do that as the season goes on."
 
Matt Rice posted a time of 20:10.88 to finish 48th for Louisiana with Bryce Robinson clocking a time of 20:18.27 to finish 59th. Dylan Heck finished 67th for the Ragin’ Cajuns with a time of 20:31.15 with Christian Bergeron (73rd, 20:43.72), Jacob Chicola (77th, 20:53.97), Cole Stafford (80th, 21:02.07), Scott Brewster (84th, 21:10.89) and freshman Marvin Hebenbrock (91st, 21:26.05) rounding out the field.
 
Musgrove paced the Ragin’ Cajuns on the women’s side with Courtney Broussard finishing in 47th place after crossing the line in 16:03.38. Lindsay LaGarde was 51st (16:12.74) for Louisiana with freshman Alexa Breaux finishing 61st (16:29.20), Kaylei Esfeller (16:57.63) 80th, and Hailey Hesterman 115th (18:50.62).
 
"The women were solid today despite losing Claire Hodges to an injury," Badeaux said. "With our (roster) numbers, we knew we didn’t have a lot of room for error, but we had some kids step up and help us today."
 
Louisiana will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 17) when it travels to Baton Rouge to compete in the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park. The women’s race will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the men’s race scheduled to start at 8:10 a.m.