ANDERSON, S.C. – Kevin Eagle, the head coach of the Anderson University men's and women's cross-country teams, has released the 2023 schedule for the upcoming season.

The Trojans once again open the 2023 campaign on Sept. 16 in Spartanburg at the Converse Kick-Off Classic, followed by the NCAA Regional Preview two weeks later in Oakwood, GA on Sept. 30. To wrap up the regular season, Anderson travels to Huntsville, AL for the UAH Charger Invitational on Oct. 7.

"Each meet this year has a purpose as far as scheduling goes," said coach Eagle. "Each one gets more important as the season progresses. We open at Converse, with this course being the host of the 2023 NCAA Division 1 Southeast Regional Championship. We are hoping to get some pretty good early season competition by racing here. This is typically a smaller meet, but who knows what it will look like this year. The next competition at North Georgia is to simply allow our runners to get familiar with our regional course. Most have not run here before, so it will be nice to race regional competition while learning the course for when it really matters in November. The UAH meet is one of the largest in the country all year long, so this one will show us where we stack up against some of the best teams in the entire country. This one will get us ready the championship portion of our schedule."

The SAC XC Championships are set for Oct.21 in Newton, N.C. for the first time since 2017, with the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 4 in Oakwood, GA, and the national championships taking place on Nov.18 in Joplin, MO.

"From my memory, the Newton course is very flat and fast, so it will compare mostly with the course at UAH," said Eagle. "There are not any hills that you must worry about, so it is basically a track meet out there for all runners. It is opposite of the regional course this year, so it will be hard to fully train for one or the other. We know that the regional meet is the one that dictates who makes it to NCAAs, so that is the one that we will focus on throughout the year. If we are prepared to run a hilly type of course, a flat, track like course should not be much of a problem. We just must focus on getting out quick and holding on to that fast pace as there are no hills to slow us down at any point on the SAC course."

Both the men and women's teams are coming off historic seasons in which each squad qualified for the NCAA National Championships. Four athletes on both the men's side (Elliot Dotson, Ty Nelson, Daniel Similton, and Spain Vaughan) and women's side (Emily Golden, Whitney Hanson, Jodi Ann Martin, and Elise Matthews) were named to the USTFCCCA All-Southeast Region team after the men placed third, and the women second at regionals. Wingate won the region on both sides, with the men being the national runner-up and the women finishing 23rd at the NCAA National Championships.

"Our region is getting stronger and stronger each year, which means it gets tougher to qualify for the national meet," said Eagle. "We know that we must peak at the right time for both teams to make it there again, so we just need to make sure we are firing on all cylinders come November 4th. Leading up to this meet, we just need to keep getting better each time we toe the line. With us knowing that each race gets bigger and bigger as the season progresses, this allows us to be the sharpest at the end of the year."