BEAUMONT, Texas - The Lamar University men's and women's cross-country teams are gearing up for the start of the 2024 season. This Friday, the Cardinals will run in their first meet of the season in the Battle for New Orleans hosted by the University of New Orleans at Lake Oaks Park.
 
The women's team will kick off the meet, running a 4K course at 5:15 p.m. Last season's individual Southland Conference champion and women's athlete of the year Nia Clatworthy headlines a returning group of seven individuals that includes first-teamer Cara Inch, second-teamer Annabel Hobday, Natalee Bergeron, MyKayla Mims, Bianka Paciorek, Khylee Phillips, and Ashton Rainey. Joining the Cardinals' squad are six newcomers in Claire Bibb, Eleana Campos, Anna Eischen, Inca Padfield, Lauren Polk, and Emma Powell.
 
The men's team will follow up with a 5K run at 5:45 p.m. Returning for them are Geovany Cisneros, Adrian Hahn Vadstein, Crawford Kiser, Raul Lopez, Dominick Luna, Freddy Richardson, Jonathan Rivera, Aaron Saenz, Ryan Servantes, Riley Trent, and Alejandro Villalva. Big Red is adding nine new members in Kenny Bibb, Andres Radon, Luke Parker, Alexis Rodriguez, Lloyd Sheppard-Brown, Trenton Showen, Taylor Vela, Beau Waldrop, and Brian Woolums.
 
Other teams that will run in the meet include Loyola-New Orleans, Nicholls, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern and Xavier-New Orleans.
 

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