Cross Country: Cajuns Wrap Up Cross Country Season At NCAA South Central Regionals

Matt Sullivan, Asst Sports Information Director, November 15, 2013

Women’s team takes first step in becoming regionally-ranked program

WACO, Texas – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns cross country team wrapped up its 2013 season on Friday as it competed in the NCAA South Central Regional that was held at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course.

Louisiana, with a pair of freshmen among its top three runners, finished 18th overall on the women’s side with 492 points, finishing behind LSU (473) and ahead of Tulane (509) and New Orleans (626).

Anna Katherine Devitt posted a time of 22 minutes, 37.3 seconds to finish 66th overall on the 6K course. Danielle Castaldi finished 93rd overall (23:26.5) for the Ragin’ Cajuns with Claire Hodges (101st, 23:28.0), Courtney Musgrove (127th, 24:47.2), Kaylei Esfeller (131st, 25:15.8) and Camille Barnett (137th, 26:14.5) rounding out the field.

"We wanted to see how our top three against the rest of the region and what we saw today was exactly what we expected," head coach Lon Badeaux said. "Our top three ran really well against one of the toughest regions in the country. Our three freshmen (at the bottom of the lineup) struggled. It (the race) was a little bit more than they were expecting.

"Overall, we’re satisfied with the results and want to get to a starting point. We don’t want to be just a conference team … we want to be a regionally-ranked cross country team and today was that first step."

Arkansas claimed the women’s title as it placed five runners in the top 11 to finish with 33 points, easily outdistancing second-place SMU and Texas A&M (116).

Trey Bonin was the lone representative for Louisiana on the men’s side finishing in 118th place on the 10K course in 34:10.0.

"We had some guys dinged up and Trey was our only 10,000-meter runner, so we thought it would be beneficial for him to compete," Badeaux said. "We wanted to rest our guys and get them ready for indoor track (in January)."

Arkansas made it a sweep as it claimed the men’s title with 34 points, edging second-place Texas (37) with Lamar (110), Stephen F. Austin (154) and Rice (167) completing the top five.