SoCon Championships info page
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships will take place at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, this Saturday and Sunday. This year marks the 95th annual championship for the men and 33rd for the women.
Saturday’s schedule gets under way with the women’s 10,000-meter run at 8 a.m., followed by the men’s 10,000m. The decathlon commences at 9:30 and the heptathlon and field events begin at 10. A full day of events concludes with the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and men’s pole vault at 5:25 and the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase at 5:40 p.m. In all, 12 champions will be crowned on the first day of competition.
Sunday’s schedule opens with the first of the final five decathlon events at 9 a.m., with the heptathlon resuming at 9:15. Field events begin with the women’s high jump and men’s shot put at 11 a.m. and the women’s 4x100-meter relay gets the track events started at 1 p.m. The day concludes with the women’s and men’s 4x400-meter relays at 4:25 and 4:40, respectively, followed by the awards ceremony. Thirty events will crown champions on the final day of the meet.
Western Carolina swept the titles last season, with the Catamount men winning their third straight and eighth overall, while the women won their 10th overall and fourth in the last six seasons.
Last season, the Catamounts won six men’s events and pulled away late on the second day of the tournament to easily outdistance runner-up Samford. On the women’s side, WCU and Samford were tied with three events to go before the Catamounts claimed five podium finishes the rest of the way to knock off the defending-champion Bulldogs.
This season’s power rankings – determined by the top eight times or scores that are reported by the schools for each event that will be conducted at this week’s championships – predict a Western Carolina repeat on the men’s side and a Samford win on the women’s.
The Catamount men own 201.5 points in the power rankings, putting them well ahead of Samford’s 144. The Bulldog women lead Western Carolina by 40 points, 194.83-154.66.
This year’s championship is free to the public. Live results, daily recaps, photos and video highlights can be found at SoConSports.com.
Storylines:
- The event returns to Birmingham for the fourth time. Previous championships hosted by Samford occurred in 2011, 2015 and 2017.
- Only one of the individual superlative winners on the men’s side from last year returns this season in ETSU’s Karon Delince, who was the SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2018. On the women’s side, Samford’s Selena Popp, last year’s Most Outstanding Athlete and two-time defending Most Outstanding Field Performer, returns, as is Wofford’s Hannah Steelman, who was the 2018 SoCon Freshman of the Year.
- Eight of the 19 men’s individual event winners from 2018 are back this season, including Samford’s Keyth Fightmaster and ETSU’s Ben Johnson, who will be looking for their third consecutive titles in the high jump and javelin, respectively. Fightmaster could win his fourth high jump title, as he claimed the 2015 crown before redshirting the 2016 season.
- The women also return eight of the 19 individual event winners from last season, including Samford’s Popp, who won the high jump and claimed her second straight heptathlon; Wofford’s McLeod Dean, who won the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash; and Samford’s Maggie Johnston, who won her second straight title in the discus throw.
- Two meet records were set on the men’s side last season, as The Citadel’s Malik Diggs erased one of the championship's oldest records, in the 110-meter hurdles. The Bulldog graduate student ran 14.09 to finish under the mark of 14.1 set in 1977 and equaled in 1979 and 1980. Western Carolina’s 4x400-meter relay unit of Devaniel Dale, Henry Kiedy, Chace Washington-Saunders and Dakota Lamont combined to erase a meet record that had stood since 1984. The quartet teamed up to run 3:09.06.
- Two women’s records fell, as well. Samford's Johnston set the first meet record of the day, surpassing her own mark from last year's meet with a toss of 48.31 meters (158 feet, 6 inches) to win her second straight discus title. She added more than a meter to her previous record. Furman's Allie Buchalski claimed her second career title in the 1,500-meter run, clocking 4:19.44 to shave more than three seconds off the mark set by SoCon Hall of Famer Shannon Wommack of Chattanooga in 2006.
2019 SoCon men’s outdoor track and field power rankings
Team Points
Western Carolina 201.5
Samford 144
Furman 111
ETSU 110
Wofford 96
The Citadel 71
VMI 57.5
UNC Greensboro 9
2019 SoCon women’s outdoor track and field power rankings
Team Points
Samford 194.83
Western Carolina 154.66
Wofford 117.5
ETSU 111
Furman 76
Mercer 52
VMI 46
The Citadel 28
Chattanooga 21
UNC Greensboro 13
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