Georgia Returns To Huntsville For NCAA XC South Regional

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Bulldog cross country teams travel to Huntsville, Ala., on Thursday prior to competing at the NCAA South Regional on Friday morning.

This will mark the squads' second trip to the John Hunt Park this season after competing at the regular season's North Alabama Showcase on Sept. 16.  Georgia had the same setup in Huntsville last year after running one regular season meet and concluding its team competitions at the same course during the South Regional.

When & Where: The Lady Bulldogs will line up in the women's 6k at 9:30 a.m. ET while the men will run their first 10k of the year at 10:30 a.m.

Where To Watch The Race: A live stream of the races will be located here: http://gado.gs/9sd

Results: Live results for the meet will be located here: http://gado.gs/9s4

Weather: With temperatures expected to be in the mid 60s, morning showers are predicted for Huntsville with minimal winds.

What Dogs Are Competing: Georgia is expecting to have 14 runners competing at the Regional meet.  On the women's side, junior Ellie Hall, sophomores Charlotte Augenstein, Sophia Baker and freshmen Lorel Golden, Audrey Knoper, Katherine Law and Simone Rojas are scheduled to race.

Juniors Sam Bowers, Nicolas Fontova, sophomores Cooper Bocko, Chase Condra, Noah Hayes, KC Heron and Davis Potts will take the course for the Bulldog men.

Henner's Take: "The emphasis for both squads will be to be in position to compete over the last third of the course," said first-year Bulldog cross country coach Patrick Henner.  "Just like every other team in the country, we have had our share of illness but everyone if starting to get healthy and will be ready to race on Friday.  It is a point of emphasis that everyone needs to be a leader, at practice, and especially on race day, for us to move the program forward."

Henner is encouraged that his teams have the chance to return to a course that is familiar to them.

"The cross country facility in Huntsville is, in my opinion, the best cross country course and facility in the country.  It's a fast but fair course that our team really likes. It's helpful to go into championship races in a familiar environment."

What's At Stake: The NCAA South Regional meet signals the point in the season when Georgia and the other contenders have to finish near the top to continue their campaigns.  The top two teams (each team can compete seven runners and score five) for each gender from each of the nine regions nationwide automatically qualify.  The top four individuals not on those qualifying teams also automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Additionally, there will be 13 at-large team bids for each gender and two at-large individual bids for each gender.

What Bulldogs Have Regional Experience: Eight Bulldogs have previous experience at the South Regional:
*Bowers is the only Bulldog traveling to compete at two Regionals in his career, topping his teammates at both of those meets.  He earned All-Region honors with a ninth-place showing in 2021 and was 46^th at the 2018 meet.
*Five other Georgia runners have scored at a previous Regional.  Bocko was 86^th last year to be in UGA's top five along with Potts, who was 110^th.
*On the women's side, Augenstein (135^th) and Baker (137^th) scored for the Lady Bulldogs in 2021.
*Hall was in Georgia's top five in 2019 after completing the course in 56^th place.
*Fontova (128^th) and Heron (152^nd) also suited up for the Bulldogs last year in their first Regional experience.

FLASHBACK – 2021 NCAA South Regional: Sixth-year senior Samantha Drop earned the fourth All-Region honor of her career and Bowers had the best finish for the Bulldog men since 2015 to highlight the NCAA South Regional in Huntsville last year.

The Lady Bulldogs completed their 6k course in 12^th place with 364 points to start the day.  The Georgia men finished 11^th (308) on the 10k course in the morning's second race.

Drop picked up her fourth All-Region certificate with a 22^nd-place finish (20:27.61) at the Regional.  On the men's side, Bowers led the Bulldogs with a ninth-place finish (29:46.20).  Bowers registered the top finish for a Bulldog individual since Zack Sims was eighth to help guide UGA to a fourth-place finish in 2015.  This marked the first All-Region honor for Bowers in his career.

Surging 20 spots from where she was 1500 meters in, Drop concluded her final meet as her team's leader for the eighth time in her career.  This race officially finished Drop's brilliant cross career.  Sara Bailey, who was the Lady Bulldogs' top finisher at the first four meets last year, finished one spot out of All-Region honors. Situated at 52^nd after a fourth of the race, Bailey moved up to 26^th and crossed the line in 20:40.36 during her first meet of this kind.

Anna Marian Block became a Regional scorer for the second time in her career.  She trimmed three spots off her 2019 finish to take 59^th with a 21:25.87.  Georgia's final two scorers were only separated by a single finisher as Augenstein and Baker made it into the Lady Bulldogs' top five.  Augenstein completed the course in 22:51.26 to take 135^th while Baker managed a 22:52.34 for 137^th in what was each of their first experiences at the Regional.

Bowers picked up right where Drop left off and slid into the field's top 10.  He finished as the sixth finisher not on one of the top two automatic qualifying teams in Ole Miss and Alabama.  This marked his return to the meet after redshirting in 2019 and not having a chance to run in the race in 2020 because of pandemic restrictions.

Sixth-year senior captain Michael Hans was the Bulldogs' second finisher for the third consecutive meet thanks to his 42^nd-place finish (31:08.57).  Wesley John clocked a 21:43.84 and finished 68^th after being the Bulldogs' final scorer in 2019 at the meet.

Similar to the Lady Bulldogs, the Bulldog men's final pair of scorers were running at their first NCAA South Regional.  Bocko battled for a 32:06.77 to take 86^th in the 181-man field.  Potts wrapped up his final 2021 meet in 110^th place (32:53.60).

Last Time Out: Condra and Bowers were the Bulldog front runners on the men's side while Augenstein led the Lady Bulldogs for the second race in a row at the Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships in Oxford, Miss., on Oct. 28.

Condra, a Suwannee, Ga., native, was Georgia's top finisher for the first time with Bowers, a Milton, Ga., native, coming in three spots behind him at the Ole Miss Golf Course to help the Bulldog men take ninth in the 8k with 229 points.

Augenstein, a native of Albany, Ga., managed a 65^th-place finish to lead the Georgia women to 13^th-place honors (395 points) in the 6k.

The men's race was the second of the day and Condra was the first Bulldog across the line for the first time in his career.  He ran a 24:21.07 to finish three spots in front of Bowers (24:25.28).  Bowers finished his conference career by scoring in four separate league meets.

Potts scored for the first time in his career thanks to a 24:39.40.  His 46^th-place showing trimmed 39 spots off of his 2021 finish.  The Bulldogs' fourth and fifth finishers crossed the line back-to-back in the 109-man field.  Bocko (25:17.01) was 67^th to score.  Heron took 68^th (25:18.10).

The women's race started the morning on Ole Miss' campus with Augenstein leading the Red and Black with a 65^th-place showing (21:25.17).  Augenstein made a mammoth improvement to her 2021 finish (112^th) to score for the second year in a row after jumping up 14 spots in the last kilometer.  Rojas, who had scored in all four previous meets this year and led the Lady Bulldogs once, ran a 21:51.74 to take 93^rd for a scoring spot.

Baker and Hall worked together to finish 105^th and 106^th to score for UGA.  Baker had a 22:08.85 to score for the second year in a row.  Hall clocked a 22:10.60 for another scoring spot.  The fifth and final scorer was Knoper, who ran a 22:12.47 against 147 other competitors.  Knoper was only running in her fourth collegiate race and left as a scorer for the third time.

What's Up Next: Qualifiers from the NCAA South Regional will ready for the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla., on Nov. 19.

Keeping Up With The Dogs: Updates from Georgia's track and field and cross country teams can always be found on Twitter/Instagram (UGATrack).

University of Georgia Athletics

Georgia Returns To Huntsville For NCAA XC South Regional

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