Charleston, S.C. – The Buccaneers men's and women's cross-country teams will compete at the NCAA Southeast Regional in Rock Hill, S.C., on Friday, Nov. 15. The women's 6k is set for 10:30 a.m. while the men's 10k is set for 11:30 a.m. The teams are looking to build on their performances from a season ago as the men placed ninth and the women took 20^th.

The last races the teams competed in were the Big South Championships back on Friday, November 1. At that race, the women took second for their third consecutive season, tying their best finish in program history while the men captured their fifth consecutive, and sixth total, Big South Championship.

In the women's race, they had all their top five finishers earn All-Conference accolades. Keerstin Augustin was second overall in the race and was the top finisher for CSU with a time of 17:00.5 for a personal best. Sarah McCartney was next across the line for the team as she had a time of 17:19.1 in fifth overall. Elizabeth Shaylor had a tremendous race with a time of 17:41.3 for seventh. The
Buccaneers rounded out their scoring five with Katrina Husby and Sarah Jacobs in 12th and 13th with times of 18:02.3 and 18:04.6. This put the final team score of the Bucs at 39 to seal their finish in 2nd overall. Augustin, McCartney and Shaylor all earned First-Team All-Conference nods while Husby and Jacobs earned Second-Team ones. Taylar White was selected as the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

In the men's race, Zach Mickler was the top finisher for the Bucs as he took 4^th overall with a personal best time of 24:32.6. Right behind him were a trio of Buccaneers who dug deep over the final kilometer to pass runners from High Point, lowering the team score and pulling the team in control of the race. This trio included Sam Waldin, Caleb Kenyon and Martin Iriondo who crossed the line at 24:36.6, 24:37.9 and 24:39.1 to take 5th, 6th and 7th and have the team wait for their fifth runner to cross the line and complete their scoring and seal the come-from-behind victory. Christian Mariner was the one to be final scorer for the team and took 14^th overall to go with a time of 25:00.2 to clinch the championship title for the Bucs with their team score of 36. Mickler, Waldin, Kenyon and Iriondo each earned First-Team All-Conference honors while Mariner earned Second-Team. Additionally, Mickler was named the Big South Newcomer of the Year.

Charleston Southern men and women will look to continue the momentum they built from two weeks ago as they head to Rock Hill for the NCAA Southeast Regionals and punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships.
 
NCAA Championship qualifying standards:
Thirty-one teams are selected to participate in the NCAA Cross Country championship. The top-two teams from each of the nine regions automatically qualify. Thirteen additional teams are selected at-large.
The first four regional finishers, not from an automatic qualifying or at-large team, also secure an auto-bid to the championships.
 
Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their regions.