Cross Country: Strong Effort Leads Ragin’ Cajuns To LSU XC Title
Matt Sullivan, Associate Director of Athletics Communications
BATON ROUGE – Freshman Hannes Burger finished fourth overall, posting a time of 20 minutes, 42.5 seconds, and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s cross country team placed four runners in the top 15 to claim team title at the 37th annual LSU Invitational on Saturday at Highland Road Park.
Stanley Limoh and Key Alfred each posted top-10 finishes for Louisiana with Jonathan Kimutai finishing 13th. The Ragin’ Cajuns scored 54 points over the four-mile course to claim their first event of the season, finishing ahead of McNeese State (60), Southeastern Louisiana (76), LSU (80) and Tulane (94) in the eight-team field.
"We looked a lot better this week than we did in the past couple of weeks," Louisiana assistant coach Aaron Batey said. "It was a really, good call for us taking our meet away (at South Alabama) and adding this meet. The extra week of training really paid off. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we’re headed in the right direction."
Hailey Hesterman posted a time of 20.28.7 to finish 25th overall in the women’s 3-mile race and lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to a sixth-place finish.
Burger earned his second top-10 finish of the season for Louisiana, which entered the meet ranked No. 14 in the USTFCCCA South Central Region poll. Limoh earned a ninth-place finish for the Ragin’ Cajuns (21:03.5) with Alfred finishing 10th (21:10.8). Kimutai finished 13th for Louisiana after crossing the finish line in 21:20.6, with Shadrack Kipngetich finishing 18th (21:38.0) and George Femmer 19th (21:38.7).
Conner Meche recorded a time of 22:38.0 to finish 34th for Louisiana with Regan Lemaire (23:38.9) and Andre Bellard (24:59.4) following.
Teresa Bruning placed 32nd overall for Louisiana in the women’s race, posting a time of 20:53.7. Alexa Breaux finished 42nd for the Ragin’ Cajuns (22:09.1) with Alivia Johnson (22:31.0), Kate Ferguson (23:43.6) and Kaya Seaman (25:41.5) rounding out the field.
Louisiana will return to action on Sept. 29 when it travels to Lake Charles to compete at the McNeese Cowboy Stampede.
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Men’s Results (4 Miles)
1. Louisiana – 54
2. McNeese State – 60
3. Southeastern Louisiana – 76
4. LSU – 80
5. Tulane – 94
6. Southern – 170
7. New Orleans – 173
8. Nicholls State – 216
Women’s Results (3 Miles)
1. LSU – 25
2. Southeastern Louisiana – 49
3. McNeese State – 73
4. Tulane – 119
5. Nicholls State – 139
6. Louisiana – 164
7. Southern – 171
8. New Orleans – 186
