HAMMOND, La. – With its top four runners taking a breather this week, the Southeastern Louisiana men's cross country team will take a look at its depth at the 12^th annual McNeese Cowboy Stampede Saturday at the Enos Derbonne Multisports Complex in Lake Charles.

    The women's 5,000-meter race is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., followed by the men's 4-mile at 9:15 a.m. Live results, courtesy McNeese, will be accessible on the Southeastern cross country page at www.LionSports.net.

    Southeastern will be joined by Southland Conference rivals McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State and Houston Baptist, UL Lafayette, Grambling, Southern and Alcorn State. Rice and Texas Southern will compete in the women's race only.

    Scheduled to run for the Southeastern men are junior Tajh Lewis, sophomore Bryant White and freshmen Reed Callegan, Jonathan Respress and Logan Thibodeaux. Competing for the Lady Lions will be sophomore Lill-Ann Hochkeppler and freshmen Breanna Bernard, Sophie Daigle, Lindsey Hutcheson, Lydia Pevey, Tara Stuntz and Lorraine Weiskopf.

    The Lions finished 11^th and the Lady Lions 14^th at the Texas A&M Invitational this past Saturday, going against a field that had a combined 14 teams ranked in the USTFCCCA South Central Region Coaches Rankings. Sophomore Grant O'Callaghan led the Lions with a 33^rd-place finish in 24:53.2 in the men's 8K race. Stuntz placed 43^rd in 22:31.4 to lead the Lady Lions in the women's 6K.
 
MEET NOTES
   The Lions finished third and the Lady Lions fourth at the Stampede in 2016. O'Callaghan came in 11^th overall in 16:21.9. White was 18^th and Lewis 36^th.
 
QUOTES
Southeastern head coach Rocky Capello:
On the men's race…
   "We're letting our top four runners rest and getting them ready for the Alabama meet. We're only taking five guys and we're hoping they do well because we need a couple of them to step up. We're using this meet to have our next-tier guys try to step it up and earn that fifth spot. Hopefully a couple of them run really, really well and put themselves in a position where they are ready to compete at an 8K meet at Alabama in a couple of weeks."
 
On expectations for the Lady Lions…
   "They are coming off, I felt, a really good performance at Texas A&M. They will be running a 5K so I expect them to run some really good times. It will be the coolest meet we've had so far this year with the cold front coming through. The conditions should be good. It's a flat course, so I'm expecting the girls to run some really good times."
 
UP NEXT
    Southeastern will have its final regular season meet at the Alabama Crimson Classic on Friday, Oct. 13 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.