SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Seven Southern Conference (SoCon) teams will travel to their region-specific NCAA Regional meets this weekend. Teams from South Carolina and North Carolina will compete in the Southeast Regional meet, while teams from Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee will compete in the South Regional meet.
The Furman Paladins will compete in both the men’s 10K and women’s 6K on Friday at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia. Both squads enter the regional event after claiming their 13th straight SoCon titles. The latest USTFCCCA poll ranks the Furman women 13th in the Southeast Region, while the men are ranked 6th.
SoCon Women’s Runner of the Year Tessa Walter will be joined by Zoie Lamanna, Nysa Males, Rory Sullivan, Jais Award, Elly Velasquez, and Annie Miller. Runner of the Week honorees Nichole Harris and Mary Grace Parker will also compete, while Kate Bannigan, another Runner of the Week selection, will travel as an alternate. On the men’s side, three-time Runner of the Week Chris Knight will be joined by Albert Velikonja, Bryn Woodall, Luke Taylor, Colton Kempney, Rives Boltwood, and Matteo Tonnos.
Western Carolina will send 10 competitors to Earlysville. Matthias Peterson and Jaleb Saunders will compete in the men’s 10K, while Jessica Connole, Amaya Hicks, Madeline Hladik, Katherine Hopkins, Grace Lane, Riley McKinney, Peyton Skoglund, and Braelyn Wahy will compete in the women’s 6K. Peterson and Saunders were named to the SoCon Men’s All-Freshman Team.
UNCG will send its men’s team to Virginia, led by SoCon Men’s Freshman of the Year Luke Hühn. He will be joined by Khalid Abdullahi, Pierson Guerrant, Jay Guy, Lane Prochaska, Logan Ruffner, and Luke Ward.
The ETSU Bucs will send a full slate of runners on both the men’s and women’s sides. Led by SoCon Men’s Runner of the Year Jason Bowers, the Bucs will look to follow up their second-place conference finish with a strong showing in Huntsville, Alabama. Teammates Oliver Cunningham, Colin Everett, William Hartig, Garrett Hawkins, Nate Hillis, Josh Hunt, Ben Kenner, Pierson Layer, Wesley Luisi, Conner Overly, Nolan Pedota, Chance Underwood, and Hayden Waleski will join Bowers.
Mercer will send its SoCon Championship runner-up team to Huntsville to compete in the South Regional. The Bears are led by Nichole Harris, a 2025 Runner of the Week honoree, and Mary Grace Parker, who finished third at the conference championship. They will be joined by Chiara Belfico, Emma James, Olivia Jones, Abbie Kallbreier, and Kamryn Wingfield. According to the latest USTFCCCA poll, the Bears are ranked 13th in the South Region.
Mercer’s men will also compete, with a roster that includes Jonathan Greene, Buck Ledford, Peyton Millwood, Jacob Peters, Will Poelker, Yianni Pothoulakis, and Max Wakeland.
For the ETSU women, junior Sophie Beach and senior Kendall Johnson both rank among the top 20 6K performances in the conference this season. They will be joined by Isabella Dentino, Eliza Evertt, Bonita Gray, Camryn Johnson, Meg Lance, Madalyn Mahoney, Grace Singleton, Julia Visgueiro, and Taylor Walker. Visgueiro was the lone Runner of the Week selection for ETSU women this season.
The Chattanooga Mocs will travel to Huntsville for the South Regional Championships. The women’s team, led by 2025 All-Conference First Team member, Maddie Wheatcroft and Leah Boyd, 2025 All-Conference Second Team member, includes Lola Baker, Andrea Ellis, Lexi Foley, Liv Gould, Bella King, Emma Thweatt, and Audrey Wade. The men’s roster features Isaac Atwood, Cash Coggin, Ian Etheridge, Tristan Gould, Reid Gulstrom, Riley Hanson, Derek Mitchell, Andrew Moore, and Jackson Martin.
Samford rounds out the South Region competitors with six men: Reese Bell, David Brown, Stephen Jones, William Jordan, and Loden Kohrman. The Bulldogs will also send individual runner Felicity Hamilton to compete in the women’s 6K. The freshman ran the fourth-fastest 6K in the conference at the Crimson Classic with a time of 20:59.50.
The South Regional meet begins at 8:30 a.m. CT with the women’s race, followed by the men’s race at 9:30 a.m. CT, and will be broadcast on ESPN+. The Southeast Regional meet will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET with the women’s race, followed by the men’s race at 11:00 a.m. ET.