BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Matt Perri finished third overall and two other HBU men placed in the top 15 Saturday to lead the Huskies to a third-place team finish with 83 points at the LSU Invitational Cross Country meet at Highland Park. Maximo Mendoza, the 2010 Great West Conference outdoor 10,000-meter champion, was ninth, while freshman Anthony Aguinaga of Channelview took 15th. The HBU women were fifth as a team, with freshman Jessica Whitt leading the way with a 16th-place effort individually.

"We had a much better effort here than we did last week at Rice," said head coach Theresa Fuqua. "The conditions were quite challenging today, with high temperatures and humidity, along with a course that had plenty of hills. Almost every one of our runners had a better race, which is a good indicator that their fitness is getting where it should be at this time of the season. Matt Perri had another outstanding race, and Jessica Whitt continues to impress me as our lead runner."

Perri clocked 26:11.71 over the 8,000-meter course, 23 seconds ahead of the next finisher. Behind Mendoza and Aguinaga, HBU's other scoring runners were Josh Pantoja in 34th and freshman Ulysses Montoya in 36th. Richard Munoz, a transfer from Stephen F. Austin, was 37th, while Sid Makhunga finished 44th. Houston won the team title with 47 points, and LSU finished as runners-up with 53 in the 10-team field.

Whitt covered the women's 6,000-meter course in 21:59.93. Returning to her home state, freshman Shelby Jones was the second woman across the line for the Huskies, placing 23rd, and Emily Shulik was 35th. The other two scorers for HBU were Angela Rojas in 38th and Halcie Pfeiffer in 41st. HBU scored 142 points for fifth as McNeese State took top honors with 38, followed by Houston (57), Tulane (73) and LSU (75).

HBU returns to action Friday, Oct. 8 hosting the HBU/Puma Invitational on campus.