NATCHITOCHES, LA. - Louisiana’s Lady’ Cajuns cross country team won it’s first title since the 2001 season as the women took first place in the 5K Northwestern State Invitational here from the Demon Hills Golf Course.
The Lady Cajuns finished with 42 points overall in the seven-team race, eight points ahead of second place Northwestern State.
Senior Natalie Gillis won the individual title by an impressive 38-second margin with a time of 19:27.47. It was the first win of Gillis’s career and gives her three top ten finishes in three races this season.
Lady Cajuns junior Jennifer Gautreaux finished in third place overall and recorded her best 5K result at UL with a time of 20:07.88. Sophomore Stacey Enright (21:06.76) rounded out the top ten for the Lady Cajuns with a tenth place finish.
Other Lady Cajun notables include sophomore Leah Legere (21:18.06) with an 11th place finish, junior Laura Zaunbrecher (21:50.54) in 17th place, junior Dusty Martin (22:08.34) in 19th place, and freshman Jenna Clement (22:52.74) finishing 24th overall.
The Ragin' Cajuns finished second overall in the men’s 8,400meter race. The Cajuns finished with 75 points total, 22 points behind first place Louisiana Tech.
Sophomore Justin Lemaire (28:13.31) was the top finisher for the Cajuns in 10th place overall. Senior Nick Bouterie (28:18.18) finished just five seconds behind Lemaire in the 11th spot.
Juniors Ryan Dupree (28:33.76) and Chad Campbell (28:49.24) rounded out the top 20 for UL by placing 14th and 17th overall.
Other notable men’s runners for the Cajuns included freshman Daniel Hebert (29:24.07) in 23rd place, freshman Ben Schexnayder III (29:41.04), and senior Nick Meaux (30:58.53) finishing 32nd overall.
“The women obviously had some really good performances, despite missing two of our top five runners,” stated coach Tim Lemaire. “The guys ran really well on a long course and overall I was really pleased with their performance as well.”
“We’re improving every race and hopefully we can continue to improve heading into the Sun Belt Conference meet in November.”
Louisiana's men’s and women’s teams will both have a week off before traveling to Fayetteville, Arkansas to compete in the Chili Pepper Invitational on Saturday, October 18th.