LSU cross country runner builds her own legacy in a family of LSU athletes

LSU Freshman, Georgia Theriot, runs on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026 at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

There was never a doubt in LSU women’s cross-country runner Georgia Theriot’s mind that she would become a Tiger.

Purple and gold runs in the Theriots’ blood. Her mother was an LSU cheerleader, and her father was a baseball star for Skip Bertman at LSU and went on to play 13 seasons in Major League Baseball. Both of Theriot’s older siblings attend LSU. However, Theriot fell in love with the running competition on her own terms.

“I love a sport that’s based off of how hard I work,” Theriot said. “I would go to practice and I knew that I had a hard workout, but I was actually excited to see how far I could push myself.”

Theriot’s emphasis on running began late in her athletic career. During her sophomore year of high school, Georgia and her older sister, Macey Theriot, transferred to Parkview Baptist High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to play on the women’s soccer team. One of their assistant coaches recommended that the Theriot sisters try out for the track team, which led to a successful high school running career.

“I think when I’m running and I’m making myself uncomfortable, I’m becoming more mentally strong,” Theriot said. “I already was mentally strong when I started running, so it kind of felt like my sport.”

Theriot worked her way up to become a seven-time track and field state champion for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, including two personal state championship titles in the 800-meter.

Macey, who graduated a year before Theriot, decided to continue her athletic career at LSU, opening Theriot’s eyes to the possibility of a collegiate career of her own.

“It wasn’t mainly just because my sister did it,” Theriot said. “I wanted to run in college because I wanted to make myself grow as a person.”

Theriot found that collegiate training was more rigorous. She frequently runs doubles, where she runs twice a day to increase her weekly mileage. The increase in mileage required Georgia to prioritize recovery and nutrition more than before.

“I’ll go to the training room at [the center for athletic training], and me and my friends will get in the hydrotherapy room and do the cold tub and then the hot tub and do contrast,” Georgia said.

Macey was by her sister’s side during the transition, this time as a coach. After having decided that her running career had come to an end after her freshman season at LSU, she wanted to remain close to the team and her sister.

“Being able to watch her go through the same things that I went through but also let her be her own person is a very big deal for me,” Macey said.

Entering the school year, Theriot had to learn to balance the rigor of being an architecture major with training. When 10-hour days in the architecture studio prevented Theriot from going to practice, she trained on her own time with Macey by her side.

“She [would] help me do the workout by myself in the afternoon, pace me,” Theriot said.

Theriot’s older teammates also took it upon themselves to guide her through her first season.

“It’s really easy for me and [the] other freshman teammates just because [the upperclassmen] really taken us underneath their wing and made us feel like we belong here,” Theriot said.

“Surely all the girls are special in their own ways, but they’ve all done something together in their own special way to kind of touch and help me and my other freshman teammates,” Theriot continued

Macey has seen how much her sister had grown in the short time she’d been on LSU’s campus.

“For the actual races themselves, I’ve seen her be so calm and composed she keeps her eyes up and she’s focused on getting to the next group, which is what you want to do,” Macey said. “She’s become more of a mature runner, and she looks like a college runner to me.”

In her first collegiate meet at the Battle for New Orleans on Sept. 4, Theriot set a personal best in the 4-kilometer race with a time of 15:40.7, aiming to carry the momentum throughout her season.

“It’s good for the first race, and I see a lot of future improvement,” Theriot said. “I’m really motivated and really inspired by everybody around me, so I’m excited to see. I think, I know by the end of the season, I’m going to be able to be way more in shape than I was at the start and drop a lot of time.”

With her family by her side, Theriot is building her own legacy at LSU.