The Lions cross country team took fourth place at the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park. Six of the runners for the Lions finished in the top 30.
“I felt that we ran really well,” said Head Coach Sean Brady. “We had to run a pretty muddy course. It was wet and the times weren’t really fast, however the team competed very well.”
The Lions finished with 119 points. Freshman Ben Vasterling was 21st in scoring and 22nd overall finishing at 16 minutes, 28.61 seconds in the 5K.
“True freshman Ben Vasterling continues to impress,” said Brady. “He just seems to be getting better and better every week. He was our top guy today.”
Freshman Grant O’Callaghan finished 23rd in scoring and 26th overall in 16:49.12. O’Callaghan fell behind in the race due to another runner slipping and falling.
“He got taken out on one of the hills by some guy who slipped,” said Brady. “But, he got back up and finished and ran pretty well. When you lose your rhythm in a race it becomes hard to regain that when you’re fatigued. I thought he did a good job of picking himself back up and finishing.”
In the 5K for the female runners, junior Clarissa Smith finished 17th overall in 19:00.77, surpassing her time at the LSU Invitational last year. Junior Allie Stone finished 41st in 21:43.21 and sophomore Amber Ferguson finished 52nd with a time of 23:10.12.
“Clarissa Smith really stood out on the woman’s side,” said Brady. “We didn’t finish five women today so we didn’t get a team score. Smith is starting to move up in the ranks in the conference and I think she is stronger and more fit than she has ever been.”
Lions and Lady Lion runners have a personal reason to perform well at the LSU Invitational and that is not simply winning.
“We always wanna perform well against the likes of LSU,” said Brady. “Anytime they go to compete against LSU our kids are ready. Because they have seen that court lots of times, at least the kids from this area. They see a lot of the athletes that they competed against in high school.”
Their next match will be at the McNeese Invitational in Lake Charles, Louisiana on Oct. 1.
“This team is in a position to certainly be in the top half of the conference,” said Brady. “We can have a great big day to pick off a few of those rankings and maybe do better than that.”