AUBURN, Ala. – The men and women of Auburn cross country will get their first taste of postseason competition Friday at the NCAA South Regional in Huntsville, Alabama. The race will be held at the John Hunt Cross Country Course with the women's 6k race set to lead off at 8:30 a.m. CT and the men's 10k race to follow at 9:30 a.m. CT.
Of 39 total schools competing for the women and 34 for the men, only the top two in each race will automatically punch their tickets to compete at Nationals in Stillwater, Oklahoma later this month.
"The John Hunt course we have been at several times before, so that's exciting. You always love to have a little home cooking," said Tigers head coach Aaron Kindt. "To be able to compete somewhere you have been before presents a lot of advantages."
The Auburn women are looking to continue their progression this season after finishing tenth at SEC Championships two weeks ago.
Running for women's squad will be seniors Sara Pacer and Hannah Tarwater, junior Samantha Rogers, sophomores Hannah Thuss and Hallie Porterfield, and freshmen Gené Coetzee and Hailey Marston.
Leading the Tigers throughout the season, Rogers is headed into her second NCAA Regionals appearance just after a career-best 6k performance at the SEC Championships last time out. Coetzee also ran a career-best 6k at the conference meet and will be one to watch for the week.
"The men have come off of SECs looking great," said Kindt. "Really excited about putting them out there one more time this year with another solid block of training."
Lacing up for the men's side will be junior Dustyn Lewis, sophomores Cooper Atkins, Carson Bedics, Ryan Kinnane and Louis O'Loughlin and freshmen Isaiah Billingsley and Joseph Perry.
Kinnane paved the way for the Auburn men at SEC Championships, finishing 11th individually and helping the men's team to a 7th place finish, the best finish since 2014. O'Loughlin also ran a strong race for a career-best 8k performance at the meet.
Kinnane enters his second regional meet after being named to the 2021 USTFCCCA All-Region Team, and recently being named the 2022 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well as Second Team All-SEC. The freshmen duo of Coetzee and Perry also earned conference honors as members of the 2022 All-Freshman team.
"We will go up against a lot of SEC teams and ACC teams," said Kindt. "Teams that we have seen a lot this year, so we will get one more crack at them and see if we can knock of some teams we haven't beaten in a while."
A total of 73 schools competing at the regional, three are nationally recognized in latest edition of the USTFCCCA Poll. For the women's field, it's No. 7 Alabama and No. 24 Florida State. In the men's field, the Tigers will face off with No. 16 Alabama and No. 20 Tennessee.
Live timing for both races will be available at https://live.xpresstiming.com/meets/18284.