Both the Colonels’ women and men’s cross country teams participated in the Louisiana State University Invitational this past weekend, with the women finishing sixth out of 12 and the men placing eighth out of 10 teams.Head cross country coach Agapius Amo said despite the recent distractions his team has had to face; he was very impressed with their performance.
“One week ago we had a hurricane, and it was a little bit hectic for everybody,” Amo said. “This week what happened, somewhat of an oddity, they had sore throats. I call it a sick week.
“They actually did very well (at the LSU Invitational),” Amo said. “Some of them did well, and their times have come down. LSU was kind of a big meet.”
The women, who finished sixth, garnered 172 total points. They were led by senior Cassie Jones and junior Kim Prestenbach. Jones finished with a time of 23:13.26, which was good enough for eighth place, while Prestenbach had a final ranking of 23rd, clocking in with a time of 24:41.10.
Other participants for the Lady Colonels were freshmen Anastasia Jones, Nicole Triche and Naomi Quiseberry. Jones had a time of 25:11.29, which placed her 31st, while Quiseberry finished 67th with a time of 28:14.63. Triche checked in at the 80th spot with a time of 30:21.50.
Junior Andre Ory’s 53rd place ranking was tops for the Colonels in the 8K run. Ory clocked in with a time of 29:55. Freshmen Collin Campo, Robert Politz and Alexandru Gasca-Silac and sophomore Jonathon Chauvin also took part for the Colonels.
Campo crossed the finish line with a time of 30:49.82, which was good enough for 61st. Politz was not far behind in 63rd place with a time of 31:16.54, and Joshua Chauvin finished with a time of 32:30.32 for 73rd place. Gasca-Silac rounded out the participants for the Colonels, finishing in 82nd place with a time of 39:41.42.
The LSU men and women’s squads both took top honors in the meet, each scoring 29 points.
Next action for the Colonel and Lady Colonel cross country teams will be on Saturday, Oct. 2, when they make the trek to New Orleans to participate in the University of New Orleans Invitational.
Amo said he is just looking for the team to improve their individual times.
“The next competition I would like to see the times-I don’t know what place we would come to compare to other schools-but if they would have better times, I’m always happy to see this,” Amo said.
