Spartanburg, S.C. - The Southern Conference Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships will take place at Samford’s Shauna Yelton Field at The Samford Track and Soccer Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama on Monday and Tuesday. This year marks the 99th championship for the men and 37th for the women.
Monday’s schedule gets under way with the start of the decathlon at 11 a.m., followed by the start of the heptathlon at 11:15. The Men’s hammer throw final gets the field events started at 12:30 p.m., with the first track event, the preliminaries of the men’s 1,500-meter run, slated to begin at 4 p.m. In all, 12 champions will be crowned on the first day of competition – four on the track and eight in field events.
Tuesday’s schedule opens with resumption of the decathlon at 11 a.m., with the heptathlon resuming at 11:15. Field events begin with the men’s shot put and women’s discus finals at 1:15 p.m. and the men’s 4x100-meter relay gets the track events started at 3 p.m. The day concludes with the men’s and women’s 4x400-meter relays at 6:25 and 6:35, respectively, followed by the awards ceremony. Thirty events will crown champions on the final day of the meet.
Samford is the defending champion on both the men’s and women’s sides. The Bulldog men claimed their fifth title overall and third straight last year, turning a 27-point day-one lead into a118-point win over runner-up Western Carolina. Samford’s women claimed their fourth straight title and sixth overall last season, jumping out to a 46.5-point day-one lead and expanding that to an 86-point margin of victory over runner-up Wofford.
Samford, which swept the men’s and women’s titles at the SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships for the fifth season in a row, holds healthy leads in this season’s outdoor 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.
The Bulldog men have totaled 233 points in the power rankings, scoring in 19 of 21 events, including 21 points in the pole vault, to easily outdistance second place VMI (117 points). Western Carolina is third in the power rankings with 106.33 points.
Samford’s women have totaled 221 points in the power rankings, scoring in 17 of 21 events, highlighted by 25 points in the pole vault. Wofford is second in the power rankings with 120 points, with Western Carolina in third with 105.
Tuesday’s action will air live on ESPN+ beginning at 12:05 p.m. Live results, daily recaps, photos, and video highlights can be found at SoConSports.com.
Storylines:
- The event returns to Birmingham for the sixth time. Previous championships hosted by Samford occurred in 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022.
- Samford’s women are seeking to become the first team to win five straight titles since App State accomplished the feat from 2002-06.
- Every superlative winner from 2023 returns to the field this year except Wofford’s Kerrington Johnson. Cagan Campbell is the reigning Most Outstanding Track Performer while Solomon Gosh and Hannah Daffin were the Most Outstanding Field Performers. Eli Penix and Jasmine Greene were the Freshman of the Year winners while Rod Tiffin was the Men’s Coach of the Year and Jonny Bomar, the Women’s Coach of the year.
- The 2023 winners of seven of the 19 men’s individual events are back in the field this season. Samford has a trio of defending champions in Titus Moore who won last year’s 110-meter hurdles title, Cagan Campbell, who took gold in the 400-meter and 200-meter races, and William Malcolm, who claimed the 100-meter crown. Moore’s 13.87 110-meter hurdle time set a new SoCon Championship record for the event and was the fourth consecutive title for the Bulldogs in the event.
- The Citadel, VMI, and Western Carolina are each returning an individual champion. Solomon Gosh of The Citadel returns after claiming the Discus title the last two years.
- Andrew Granger of VMI is the defending Hammer champion.
- Western Carolina’s John Davis looks to defend his 1,500-meter crown.
- The winners of eleven of the 19 individual event winners from 2023 are entered in this year’s meet. Samford’s Daffin is the two-year defending champion in a pair of events, the hammer throw and the shot put. The Bulldogs’ Brittany Bishop is the two-time defending champion in the Pole Vault, an event in which she set a meet record last year clearing 4.06 meters. Dorsey Parker rounds out Samford’s returning champions as the defending high jump title winner.
- Furman boasts a pair of returning champions, as Abigail Robertson claimed the Paladins’ third straight title in the 1,500-meter run last year and Kaylie Armitage won the eighth consecutive 5,000-meter title for Furman.
- Western Carolina also returns two champions in Nytinitey Jenkins and Jasmine Greene. Jenkins won the 400-meter last year while Greene took gold in the triple jump.
- The Citadel’s Mecca Jackson is the defending champion in two events, taking the crown in both the 100 and 200-meter sprints.
- Chattanooga’s Lesley Green Boyd won the 10,000 meter race a season ago with a time of 35:09.66 after leading the race for the duration.
- VMI returns an individual champion as Eleyah Armstrong seeks to defend her long jump title.
2024 SoCon men’s outdoor track and field power rankings
| Team |
Points |
| Samford |
233 |
| VMI |
117 |
| Western Carolina |
106.33 |
| Wofford |
97 |
| Furman |
95 |
| ETSU |
76.66 |
| The Citadel |
48 |
| UNCG |
4 |
2024 SoCon women’s outdoor track and field power rankings
| Team |
Points |
| Samford |
221 |
| Wofford |
120 |
| Western Carolina |
105 |
| Furman |
95 |
| ETSU |
94 |
| VMI |
56 |
| The Citadel |
53 |
| Mercer |
43 |
| Chattanooga |
7 |
| UNCG |
1 |