Elon Cross Country Preps For NCAA Southeast Regional Championships

ELON, N.C. – Coming off third-place finishes at the Colonial Athletic Association Championship meet, the Elon University men’s and women’s cross country programs will compete at the NCAA Southeast Regional meet on Friday, Nov. 13, at the course at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Va. The meet begins with the women’s 6K race at noon followed by the men’s 10K run at 1 p.m.

Follow the Phoenix
Updates of the meet will be posted on social media through Twitter at @elonphoenix or the program’s handle at @EU_XCTF. The CAA will also provide updates on its Twitter handle at @CAASports. Live results will also be posted on the program’s schedule page at elonphoenix.com.

About the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships
The NCAA Southeast Region covers teams from the states of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. On the men’s side, there are 36 teams in competition while the women’s field features 39 squads racing on Friday. NC State comes in as the top men’s team in the region while host Virginia is the No. 1 ranked team on the women’s side. The Phoenix women, who earned a program-best eighth-place standing at last year’s regional championships, are currently No. 13 in the regional rankings.

The top-two teams and top-four individuals at each of the nine regional meets will automatically advance to the NCAA Championships to be held in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, Nov. 21. Thirteen teams will also earn at-large bids to be announced on Saturday, Nov. 14.

Panorama Farms, located in Earlysville in northern Albemarle County, has been the home course of the Cavaliers since 2001. Friday’s meet marks the fifth collegiate championship event on the course as it also hosted the 2006, 2007 and 2014 ACC Championships as well as the 2013 NCAA Southeast Regional. This is the first of three-consecutive years Panorama Farms will host the regional.

Last Time Out
Both programs last competed as teams at the CAA Cross Country Championships on Oct. 31, at Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Elon finished third in both the men’s and women’s races with the Phoenix men tying its highest conference finish ever at the Division I level.

Rookie Nick Ciolkowski became the second consecutive Phoenix runner to claim the CAA individual men’s championship title after racing a personal-best time of 24:22.3 in the men’s 8K race. That time is the second-best performance on the school’s all-time list and earned the Fairport, N.Y., native the CAA Most Outstanding Performer of the Meet and All-CAA honors. Senior Reed Payne also had a new personal-best with his time of 25:34.6, breaking into program’s all-time top-10 list.

On the women’s side, junior Kimberly Johansen was Elon’s top runner with a sixth-place finish and the second-best time in school history, 20:58.0. Senior Elyse Bierut also earned a top-10 finish with her new personal-best time of 21:03.8 while Shelby Cuddeback placed 14th with a time of 21:38.0 and rookie Coralea Geraniotis was 15th with a time of 21:45.6. Johansen and Bierut also were awarded All-CAA accolades.

About Elon at the NCAA Southeast Regional
Last season, Elon women earned its highest finish ever at the regional meet with an eighth-place standing. The female harriers also had its first-ever All-Region performer in Tereza Novotna, who clocked in a school-record time of 20:54.2 and finished 22nd overall.

The Phoenix men also had success at the regional meet last year. Elon finished 19th at the meet and saw Luis Vargas claim individualist honors in the men’s race and earn a berth to the NCAA Championships. Vargas ran a time of 30:05.78 in the men’s 10K run and finished the race 12 faster than his closest competitor

Up Next
The next race on the schedule will be the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21, in Louisville, Ky., for those who qualify.