SoCon OTF Championship set to begin Monday

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 100th championship for the men and 38th for the women.

Monday’s schedule gets under way with the start of the decathlon at 9:00 a.m., followed by the start of the heptathlon at 9:15. The women’s pole vault final gets the field events started at 10:00 a.m., with the first track event, the preliminaries of the women’s 1,500-meter run, slated to begin at 11:00 a.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 9 a.m., with the heptathlon resuming at 9:15. Field events begin with the women’s shot put and women’s high jump finals at 11:15 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 4:35, 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 sixth title overall and fourth straight last year, turning a 14-point day one deficit, into a 217-point win over runner-up VMI. Samford’s women claimed their fifth straight title and seventh overall last season, jumping out to a 48.5-point day-one lead and expanding that to an 82.5-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 sixth 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 251.5 points in the power rankings, scoring in 17 of 21 events, including 28 points in the decathlon, to easily outdistance second place Western Carolina (144 points). Furman is third in the power rankings with 113 points.

Samford’s women hold a narrow lead in this season’s power rankings, scoring in 17 of 21 events, for a total of 179 points. Western Carolina has totaled 153 points to rank second, after scoring in 15 of the events to be featured in the championship. Wofford is third with 133.

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 seventh time. Previous championships hosted by Samford occurred in 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2024.

-Samford’s women are seeking to become the first team to win six straight titles, after matching App State’s feat of five straight last season.

-The 2025 SoCon Championship could see the return of up to 19 individual defending champions.

-Three of the men’s superlative winners from 2024 return to the field this year including, Keyandre Midgett (VMI – Most Outstanding Field Performer), Owen Shifflet (Furman – Freshman of the Year), and Andrew McGinnis (Samford – Pinnacle Award Winner).

-Keyandre Midgett (VMI - men’s triple jump), Kyle Kaufelds (Samford - men’s javelin), Nicole Matysik (Furman - women’s 3,000m), Amiel Dabney (Samford – 100m hurdles), and Adeline Haisch (Samford – 1,500m) are all have the top mark in their respective events this season and are looking to defend their titles.

-VMI’s Eleyah Armstrong is the only 2024 record-setter to return to the field. The Keydet senior set a record in the women’s 100m dash during the 2024 championship, with a time of 11.35.

-Furman’s Dylan Schubert leads the league in the men’s 10,000m run, and is on pace to break the championship meet record. Schubert has already bested the current mark during the regular season by nearly two minutes.

-Furman’s Megan Marvin will look to win her fourth 800m run title in five years, after winning in 2021, 2022, and 2024. The Paladins’ senior is the current record holder in the event after clocking a time of 2:04.18 in 2021.

-Western Carolina newcomer Ethan Long leads the league in the men’s 200m dashes by over half a second. Long enters the championship coming off a school-record breaking 100m (10.31) at the Catamount Classic and is tied for the top rank in the conference in the event.

-On the women’s side ETSU newcomer Micailah Cook leads the league in the 100m and 200m dashes.

-Samford men’s 4x100 and 4x400 teams will be looking to win their third consecutive titles in the relays.

-Wofford’s women’s 4x100 will be seeking a fifth-straight title in the event, while the 4x4 relay will be looking to go back-to-back.