Georgia Travels To Gainesville For NCAA XC South Regional

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Bulldog cross country teams traveled Gainesville, Fla., on Wednesday prior to competing at the NCAA South Regional on Friday morning.

This will mark the squads' first trip to compete at the Mark Bostick Golf Course this season.  Georgia is coming off a trip to Columbia, S.C., for the Southeastern Conference Championships on Oct. 27 to open the postseason.

When & Where: The Lady Bulldogs will line up in the women's 6k at 8:30 a.m. while the men will run their first 10k of the year at 9:30 a.m.

Results: Live results for the meet will be located here:  http://gado.gs/b3r

Weather: With temperatures expected to be in the upper 60s moving into the lower 70s, partly cloudy conditions are predicted for Gainesville with minimal winds.

What Dogs Are Competing: Georgia is expecting to have 16 runners competing at the Regional meet.  On the women's side, seniors Charlotte Augenstein, Sophia Baker, Gracie O'Neal, sophomores Lily Cincola, Lorel Golden, Katherine Law and freshmen Gracey Owens and Bella Brick will represent the Red and Black.

Seniors Chase Condra, Wesley John, juniors Cole Heron, Zack Truitt, K.C. Heron, Zachary Roe, and freshmen Conner Rutherford and Luke Churchwell will take the course for the Bulldog men.

Chorny's Take: "We did not have the performance we wanted at Conference, and there's definitely a desire to show that we are better than that," said first-year Bulldog cross country coach Tom Chorny.  "Any time there's a coaching change, there's always some ups and downs, but the training has been on point and everyone in this group has gotten better throughout the year."

Chorny is eyeing focus on teamwork and energy on the course as his teams attempt to represent the 'G' at the Regional.

"In order for us to have a performance with which we can be satisfied, we have to team up when the gun goes off and run according to the plan.  We're looking for a hard effort and we're looking for improvement.  If they are able to execute throughout the race, I think they'll be happy with the results."

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 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: Seven combined Bulldogs have previous experience at the South Regional (there was no 2020 NCAA South Regional because of the ongoing pandemic):
*Condra has posted the top showing of any of his teammates with a 36^th-place finish last year to score at his only Regional.
*Four other Georgia runners have scored at a previous Regional.  KC Heron scored with a 79^th-place showing at his second Regional last year and John scored in 2021 (68^th) and 2019 (101^st).
*On the women's side, Augenstein scored at her second career Regional after crossing the finish line in 90^th.  She was also 135^th in 2021 to be in the Lady Bulldogs' top five.
*Baker is also a two-time scorer after registering a 137^th-place finish in 2021 and a 188^th-place finish last year.
*In addition, Law (195^th) and Golden (204^th) got experience at the 2022 Regional.

FLASHBACK – 2022 NCAA South Regional: Sam Bowers earned the second All-Region honor of his career with a top-20 individual performance in Huntsville, Ala., to highlight the NCAA South Regional last year.

Bowers ran the Bulldogs' first 10k of the season in 30:15.10 to finish 20^th out of 188 runners.  The Bulldogs finished ninth with 249 points, matching their 2017 finish.

Ellie Hall was the top Lady Bulldogs' finisher at the 6k Regional for the second time in her career, taking 67^th(21:22.94) in the 231-woman field.  The Georgia women scored 581 points to take 19^th.

Bowers did just as he had in three other races in 2022 and 10 other showdowns in his career and that is be the first Bulldog across the finish line.  Bowers again finished in the top 25 for All-Region honors to help deliver his team its top finish in five years.  Condra scored for the first time in his career after completing the course in 30:53.00 for 36^th.

Davis Potts was the third Bulldog across the line.  He ran a 31:02.40 to break into the top 50 after cruising past 15 racers during the middle of the race.  KC Heron improved his 2021 finish 73 spots to take 79^th with a 31:43.30.

The fifth scorer in what would be the season finale for Georgia was Cooper Bocko.  Bocko finished 95^th(32:04.20) after rolling with the same gameplan as his teammates and catching 13 competitors midway through the race.

In the first race of the day, Hall scored for the sixth straight time and was the team's top finisher for the second time in 2022.  Augenstein ran a 21:45.97 for 90^th.

Audrey Knoper was the third Lady Bulldog finisher thanks to a 21:58.93 for 158^th.  Simone Rojas was next across the line for the Lady Bulldogs, managing a 22:41.06 for 147^th.  Baker rounded out the scoring for the Georgia women.  Baker ran a 23:25.99 for 188^th.

Last Time Out: Condra led the men's team across the finish line for the fourth time this season while Golden was the Lady Bulldogs' top scorer for the first time in her career at the 2023 SEC Championships in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 27.

Condra placed 36^th overall with a 24:24.1 in the 8k to lead the Bulldogs to a 10^th-place finish (250 points).  Golden led the Lady Bulldogs across the line in 65^th place with a 6k time of 21:40.5 as Georgia placed 14th as a team (371 points).

The meet kicked off with the men's 8k race with Condra leading the Bulldogs across the finish line for the second-straight SEC Championship. Finishing second for Georgia was John, who posted his first scoring effort of the season with a 24:50.1 to finish 50^th.

Rutherford was Georgia's third finisher, clocking a time of 24:59.3 to score for the second-straight meet. Finishing just seconds behind in 57^th was Truitt, who clocked a personal-best 25:05.0 to score for the first time in his career.  Cole Heron rounded out Georgia's top-five finishers with a 25:17.4 to finish 70^th. The junior has scored for the Bulldogs in all five meets this season.

The women's 6k followed the men's race, with Golden crossing the line first for Georgia.  O'Neal was the Lady Bulldogs' second scorer, climbing 17 places in the final 1,000 meters to finish 78^th (21:54.2).  Law scored for the Bulldogs for the fourth time this season, running a 22:03.9 to cross the line in 87^th overall.

Augenstein, who has scored in every meet for the Lady Bulldogs in 2023, crossed the line in 94^th place with a 22:16.6 as Georgia's fourth scorer.  Finishing one spot behind her in 95^th was Baker, who climbed 19 spots in the race's final 1,000 meters to post a time of 22:17.7.

What's Up Next: Qualifiers from the NCAA South Regional will ready for the NCAA Championships in Charlottesville, Va., 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).

Georgia Travels To Gainesville For NCAA XC South Regional

Players Mentioned

Charlotte Augenstein

Sophia Baker

Cooper Bocko

Sam Bowers

Bella Brick

Luke Churchwell

Lily Cincola

Chase Condra

Lorel Golden

Ellie Hall

Cole Heron

KC Heron

Wesley John

Audrey Knoper

Katherine Law

Gracie O'Neal

Gracey Owens

Davis Potts

Zachary Roe

Simone Rojas

Conner Rutherford

Zack Truitt

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