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Sept. 11, 1999

BATON ROUGE, La. - Tulane women's cross country runner Katrina Gemmell topped a field of 50 in winning the LSU Invitational Saturday at Highland Road Park in Baton Rouge.

Gemmell, a sophomore from Palmerston North, New Zealand, finished the two-mile race in 11:04.70 to win the event by almost two seconds. Teammate Hanna Ritakallio finished third with a time of 11:11.03.

The duo has posted top-10 finishes in both cross country events this season. Their efforts propelled Tulane to a second-place team finish with 60 points. Host LSU won the event with 24 points, while the University of Louisiana-Lafayette finished third with 77 points.

Other Tulane finishers included Lyndie Galka (13th/12:00.17), Lana Garner (23rd/12:23.46), Nikelola Balogun (41st/13:21.20) and Kathleen Mulreed (46th/13:30.84).

Once again for the Tulane men, it was sophomore Peter Rotich leading the way. Rotich covered the four-mile course in 20:27.87 to finish in sixth place. It was his second top-10 finish of the season.

The Green Wave men posted a sixth-place finish with 112 points. LSU, which claimed four of the top five finishers, won the team event with 22 points.

Other Tulane finishers included Meyer Friedman (17th/21:03.98), Mark Williams (31st/21:56.49), Edrige Darling (46th/23:53.83) and Alberto Francis (51st/27:47.28).

Tulane will next be in action on Saturday, Sept. 25, at the Popeye's Ragin' Cajun Invitational in Lafayette, La. The meet is hosted by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.