Cross Country to take on Southeast Regional
ROCK HILL, S.C. (Nov. 14, 2024) – South Carolina Cross Country is set to compete at the NCAA Southeast Regional in Rock Hill, S.C. hosted by Visit York County. The 6K race will take place at the Winthrop Farm Course on Friday, Nov. 15th at 10:30 a.m.
Fans can follow along with live results by clicking the following link.
MOVING ON
The Gamecocks will look to punch their ticket to the NCAA Cross Country Championship on Nov. 23 in Madison, Wisc. with their performance this weekend. The top two teams from each regional will receive an automatic bid and thirteen additional teams will be selected at-large. Individually, 38 additional runners will be selected to participate at the NCAA Championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. The first four regional finishers not from an automatic qualifying or at-large team will also secure an auto-bid to the Wisconsin, pending the individual finishes inside the Top 25 of their respective regional.
PARTICIPATING TEAMS
The Gamecocks will face their largest field of competition tomorrow as they look to punch their ticket to the NCAA Cross Country Championship in Wisconsin. The Gamecocks will enter the competition ranked No. 14 in the Southeast region. South Carolina finds only one other conference foe in the rankings, with Kentucky sitting at No.15. The ACC holds most of the Southeast Regional rankings with seven of the fifteen spots, including North Carolina, Virginia and NC State as the top three teams in the region.
GAMECOCK RUNNERS
The Gamecocks will be taking eight runners to Southeast Regional. Teresa Cherotich continues to lead the squad coming off an All-SEC Second Team performance, running the second fastest 6K in Gamecock history. With her time of 19:42.8, Cherotich was 14th overall and the third fastest freshman in the field, earning All-SEC Freshman team as well. Freshmen Mary Frances Iseman and Cate Conklin were the next two Gamecock scorers at the conference meet, running 20:38.0 and 20:38.8. The Gamecocks will also be taking sophomore runners Anya Arroyo, Emma Torbert and Hattie Jennings who finished as the fourth, fifth and sixth fastest runners for Carolina at the SEC Championship. South Carolina will also add freshman Siobhan Joyce and senior Lily Weeks to the regional championship squad. All eight runners enter the race this weekend following new personal bests set at the conference meet.
REGIONAL HISTORY
As a unit, the Gamecocks last finished inside the Top-10 at the Southeast Regional in 2012 when they finished 10th in Charlotte, N.C. Last season, South Carolina posted an 11th-place finish in Spartanburg, S.C. at the regional competition and saw the program’s first ever individual advancement to the NCAA Championship in former Gamecock Judy Kosgei. South Carolina looks to improve on last year’s momentum and become the fourth Gamecock squad to finish inside the Top 10 and become the first to advance to the NCAA Championship as a team.
