SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The 2017 Southern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships are set for Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 25-26). The championships will be hosted by ETSU at the Bucs’ Mountain States Health Alliance Athletics Center in Johnson City, Tennessee. This year marks the 82^nd annual championship for the men and 30^th for the women.

Saturday’s schedule will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the women’s pentathlon and will be followed by the first four men’s heptathlon events at 9 a.m. Events are scheduled through 6:35 p.m. on Saturday with action resuming on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. with the men’s final three heptathlon events. The championship will conclude on Sunday evening with the awards ceremony slated for 4:05 p.m.

Western Carolina will be seeking its fourth consecutive men’s title, while Samford will look to claim back-to-back women’s titles. The Catamounts tallied 183 points on the men’s side, while the Samford women earned 216 points in 2016. 

Western Carolina’s Jamie Brown, who competed in the high jump, long jump and triple jump, claimed the Heath Whittle Award, which honors the men’s most outstanding athlete, as a freshman in 2016. On the women’s side, Furman’s Allie Buchalski will look to defend her crown as the SoCon women’s most outstanding athlete, which would make her the only SoCon women’s indoor athlete to earn three career most outstanding athlete awards. Earlier this month, Buchalski set a then-NCAA-best time in the women’s 3,000m with a time of 9:02.04 at the Camel City Invitational. Her time currently ranks No. 2 after Oregon’s Katie Rainsberger, a freshman, surpassed Buchalski’s mark by less than one second (9:01.21) one week later at the 2017 Husky Classic.

In the latest men’s power rankings, which include meets through this past weekend, Samford leads the league with 179 points, followed by Western Carolina (152) and ETSU (122). Furman checks in at No. 4 with 98 points. The Citadel (51), Wofford (44) and UNCG (3) round out the group.

The women’s power rankings are highlighted by defending champion Samford, which tallied 247 points, followed by Western Carolina with 143 points. ETSU checks in third, totaling 106 points, while Furman took 77 points. VMI is fifth in the power rankings with 46 points followed by Wofford, which notched 22 points. UNCG (5), Chattanooga (3) and The Citadel (2) close out the women’s squads.

The rankings are determined by the top eight times or scores that are reported by the schools for each event that will be conducted at this weekend’s championships.

This year’s championship is free to the public. Live results, daily recaps, photos and video highlights can be found at SoConSports.com. Additionally, the finals of each event will be streamed on the SoCon Digital Network.

2017 Men's Indoor Track and Field Power Rankings

2017 Women's Indoor Track and Field Power Rankings

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