ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Anderson University men's cross-country team has been tabbed third in the 2023 South Atlantic Conference preseason coaches' poll, with Spain Vaughan and Elliot Dotson being named athletes to watch on Thursday (Aug. 17). Wingate was voted as the favorite to win the title. The Bulldogs, who won the 2022 SAC Men's Cross Country Championship, the NCAA Southeast Region championship, and finished second in the NCAA DII Men's Cross Country National Championship, received 12 first place votes and tallied 144 points
Dotson, a sophomore from Greenville, S.C., is coming off an historic freshman campaign as he set the 8K school record (24:09.2) at the UAH DII Festival Year Showcase. Elliot ran a 31:19.5 in the 10k at the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships for the second-best time on the team, concluding the season USTFCCCA All-Region and All-Academic recognition.
Vaughan, a junior from Greer, S.C., set the Anderson 8k school record twice last season (24:37) at the Queen City Invite and (24:34.1) at the Royals XC Challenge. Spain set a personal best time of 30:45.8 in the 10k at the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships while earning SAC Men's XC Runner of the Week, All-SAC First Team, and USTFCCCA All-Region & All-Academic honors.
The Trojans 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 Kevin 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."
2023 SAC MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY PRESEASON POLL
School (First Place Votes) Points
- Wingate (12) 144
- Catawba (1) 130
- Anderson 125
- Lenoir-Rhyne 110
- Carson-Newman 98
- Lincoln Memorial 91
- Limestone 75
- Emory & Henry 60
- Tusculum 57
- UVA Wise 42
- Mars Hill 33
- Newberry 32
- Coker 17
