Cross Country Travels To The Site Of SECs For The Gamecock Challenge

Friday, September 15

Columbia, S.C.

University of Georgia

Gamecock Challenge

Photo by: Rob Davis

Cross Country Travels To The Site Of SECs For The Gamecock Challenge

September 14, 2023 | Cross Country

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Bulldog cross country teams will travel to the Gamecock Challenge at the Charwood Golf Club in Columbia, S.C., on Thursday in anticipation for Friday morning races.

This will mark Georgia's second meet of the season as well as cross country coach Tom Chorny's second meet with the Bulldogs after serving as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Miami University (Ohio) since 2015.  Chorny arrived in July and is also the distance assistant for the Bulldogs' track and field teams.

When Do The Starting Guns Fire: The Lady Bulldogs will start the meet with their 5k race at 8:45 a.m. on Friday while the Georgia men will race in their 6k competition at 9:20 a.m.  These races come two weeks after UGA raced in the evening during the Stan Sims Opener in Acworth, Ga.

Who Is The Competition: In addition to Georgia and South Carolina, the field for the Gamecock Challenge includes Tennessee, The Citadel, South Carolina State and Claflin.  This will be an opportunity for many of the Southeastern Conference teams to run on the same course that will be featured during the SEC Championships near South Carolina's campus on Oct. 27.

Weather: Temperatures are expected to be around 70 degrees with partly cloudy conditions in Columbia on Friday morning.

Live Results: http://gado.gs/aut

Chorny's Thoughts: "It's still early in the season, and I've only known these runners for a month, but at this point, I've gotten to know their level of fitness very well," said Chorny.  "Besides becoming familiar with this course, our main goal is to race to our potential.  We saw a lot of lifetime PR's last meet, and I expect we will see even more this week.  The men only race 6K and that presents a little challenge because it's kind of an in-between race.  They should definitely be faster than their 8K race pace, but they will likely tend to go out like it's a 5K and that might put them into a world of hurt for the last 1000 meters.  When all is said and done, this will be a very hard VO2 (volume of oxygen a body uses while exercising as hard as he or she can) max effort, and from a training standpoint, this could be exactly what we need at this point of the season.  That's assuming we execute the race properly."

Chorny's teams will have a shot to compete on the exact course they and the rest of the league will compete on when the conference meet arrives.

"I always feel there's an advantage to knowing the twists and turns of a course.  I want our student-athletes to be savvy racers, and that means they should know how much a hill is going to take out of them, or where they might be able to put in a surge in order to pull away from a group.  Then there's also the familiarity factor which tends to put people more at ease.  If we can eliminate as many unknown factors as possible, then it allows us to step on the line to perform to the best of our abilities."

While the Bulldogs already have one meet under their belts, that meet fell in the early evening, which is far different than Friday morning's showdown.

"Racing in the morning tends to be a big advantage because you have less time in the day to think about the race and psych yourself out.  Everybody enters the race wanting to do their absolute best.  It's often the only thing we think about on race day so with a morning race, we can wake up, get a little fuel and then get to work before anything has too much of a chance to derail us.  Not to mention the fact that it will be much cooler in the morning hours."

What Dogs Are Competing: Georgia is expecting to have 24 runners competing in its opener.  On the women's side, seniors Charlotte Augenstein, Sophia Baker, Gracie O'Neal, sophomores Lily Cincola, Nina Ouellette, Simone Rojas, Lorel Golden, Katherine Law, Audrey Knoper and freshmen Bella Brick, Ella Kepple and Bella Cammarota will represent the Red and Black.

Juniors Cooper Bocko, Davis Potts, Cole Heron, Zack Truitt, K.C. Heron, Zachary Roe, sophomores Ethan Nordman, Max Howie and freshmen Luke Kalarickal, Ryan Olree, Luke Churchwell and Sumner Kirsch will take the course for the Bulldog men.

Bulldog Lineup: After 15 Georgia runners suited up in the red and black in the fall for the first time two weeks ago, a pair of regular scorers in 2022 in Bocko and Potts will be making their season debut along with Knoper.  Senior Chase Condra, who won the season opener, will skip Friday's meet as he continues to ready for the Paul Short Run on Sept. 30.

Speaking Of Condra: Condra's first collegiate victory to lead the Bulldogs to a team win at the Stan Sims Opener earned him SEC Men's Co-Runner of the Week.  Condra, a native of Suwannee, Ga., posted the first individual victory for the Bulldog men since Sam Bowers won the 2020 Florida State Invitational.

FAR & Away The Best: The women's cross country teams won the Faculty Athletics Representatives (FAR) Award for earning UGA's highest team GPAs for the 2022-23 academic year.  In fact, the Lady Bulldogs posted a 3.72 GPA over the fall and spring semesters giving them the best team GPA for any academic year in UGA history and the fourth honor of this kind for the team since the 1992-93 academic year.

Individual Academic Accolades As Well: Bocko, a native of Comming, Ga., was named the male recipient of the 2023-24 Joel Eaves Scholar-Athlete Award.  The award is presented to the male and female (soccer's Morgan Hart) student-athletes with the highest GPA upon entering the fall semester of his or her senior year, based on academic hour.

Bocko is a Computer Science major who scored in five meets for the Bulldogs last season, including the SEC Championships and the NCAA South Regional.

Last Time Out: Condra's first collegiate victory led the Bulldog men to a win to highlight the Stan Sims Opener at the Allatoona Creek Park on Sept. 1.  The Lady Bulldogs ran in the second 5k of the evening and finished third overall.

Condra finished two seconds ahead of the nearest competitor with a 14:33.85 for top honors.  Roe was next for the Bulldogs across the line in 14:49.84 for fourth place.  The Heron twins earned Georgia's third and fourth scoring spots.  Cole Heron was fifth overall (14:51.24) while K.C. Heron finished in the top 10 with a ninth place showing thanks to his 15:03.21.  One of Georgia's newest runners, freshman Luke Churchwell, wrapped up the scoring and helped down the Yellow Jackets with his 15:05.05 for 10^th.

Augenstein posted the top finish of her career to lead the Lady Bulldogs with a 17:46.05 for ninth place. Golden finished one spot and three seconds behind Augenstein with her 17:49.53.  Not far behind was Baker, who finished 12^th after clocking a 17:57.19.

Rojas led a back-to-back Georgia finish in 17^th place with her 18:03.10.  O'Neal, who had only been able to run in two meets over her first three seasons because of injuries, battled for an 18^th-place finish (18:04.16) to wrap up the Lady Bulldogs' scorers.

What's Up Next: There will be no home meet this season for the Bulldogs.  Georgia's final two regular season competitions will be at the Paul Short Run (Bethlehem, Pa.) on Sept. 30 and the Crimson Classic (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) on Oct. 13.

Following the SEC Championships, Georgia will make the trip to Gainesville, Fla., for the NCAA South Regional on Nov. 10.  Those who qualify will continue their season at the NCAA Championships, which Virginia will play host to 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).  Please visit georgiadogs.com for any other information regarding the Bulldogs.