Bucs head to Tallahassee for regional meet

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Nov. 14, 2019) -- After hosting its first-ever Southern Conference Championships two weeks ago, the ETSU men’s and women’s cross country teams now head south for the NCAA South Regional meet, which is hosted by Florida State on Friday morning at  the Apalachee Regional Park.

ABOUT THE BUCS 

The Bucs are coming off the SoCon Championships where the men finished runner-up and the women placed fourth.

Junior Ben Varghese (Kingsport, Tenn.) led the Buccaneer men with a third-place finish in 25:09.00, while Heather Feuchtenberger (Elizabethton, Tenn.) led the women with a 17th-place finish in a time of 19:08.85.

Varghese earned all-SoCon honors for the third straight season as he landed a spot on the first team, while senior Adam Bradtmueller (Sarasota, Fla.) and Noah Charles (Johnson City, Tenn.) received second team honors … Bradtmueller finished in eighth-place, while Charles came in 14th.

Seth Bowden (Maryville, Tenn.) earned all-freshman team honors after coming in 25th with a  mark of 26:57.04.

Lindsay Holliday (Maryville,  Tenn.) collected all-freshman team honors on the women’s side after finishing 32nd with a time of  19:38.16. 

The Buccaneer men enter the meet ranked eighth in the South Regional – sitting ahead of No. 9 Georgia Tech, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 12 Vanderbilt and No. 13 Georgia. 

ABOUT THE MEET

Florida State is the meet host as the race will be run at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

The women will run a 6K starting at 8:30 a.m., while the men follow with a 10K at 9:30 a.m.

The top two men’s and women’s teams and  he top four individuals from each race not a member of the two top teams and finishing in the top 25 will advance to the NCAA  Championships on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind.

The NCAA South Regional will be video streamed live on FloTrack… Click here for live video ... Live scoring is also available here

Runners from 36 teams make up  the women’s field, while runners from 30 teams make up the men’s field. 

Ole Miss is the top ranked team on the men’s side in the South Regional, while Florida State is the top women’s team in the regional. 

Three men’s teams are currently ranked in the top-30 – No. 11 Ole Miss, No. 15 MTSU and No. 28 Alabama … Florida State (No.  12) and Ole Miss (No. 27) are the two nationally ranked teams on the women’s side. 

Last year, Ben Varghese finished fifth in regional meet en route to qualifying for the NCAA Championships.  

QUOTABLES

“I see two motivated teams as we head into the NCAA South Regional race tomorrow,” said head coach George Watts. “This race is simply the next one on the schedule, but has a far greater significance for example than the first couple of meets of the season. Each time you race, every athlete is looking for that breakthrough performance. What better time to have that kind of result than at an NCAA event. I truly believe both teams are excited to compete tomorrow.

“Our men's team is the eighth-ranked team in the region and our goal is to finish higher than last year and our current ranking. Our women are chasing a regional ranking, and although it might be a little tougher to crack into the top 15 this year, we are closer than we've been in some time. With a healthy Lindsey Stallworth and our new freshman for 2020, Coach Layne should have a group who can be greatly improved next year.”

Follow ETSU cross country on Twitter @ETSU_TF_XC. For more information on Buccaneer men’s and women’s cross country, visit ETSUBucs.com.