Women's Cross Country | November 02, 2023

AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken women's cross country team is ready to compete at the NCAA Southeast Regionals Saturday.

The event is hosted by the University of North Georgia – and the Pacers competed there for the PBC Championship just two weeks ago.

"The women are coming into the regionals with a lot of season ending success, and they are looking to build off of that," Leonard said. "Because of injuries, we have had to be creative when it came to training. We have some student-athletes that are not running on the ground until race days, and they have seen personal-best times. Those student-athletes have been persistent and have worked hard, and it is rewarding to see them do well. They are going to go out and run well and I expect to see new personal-best times." 

Head coach Marshall Leonard's team is coming off a slew of personal-best times, in addition to a school record, at the UNG course. 

During the PBC Championship, rookie Tess Studley shattered the 5k school record, which stood for 13 years. In addition to Studley, Taylor Joop posted a top-five time in school history. 

Alaynah Guthrie and Amaiyah Smith are both coming off personal-best marks on the same course the team will be competing on. 

Fellow rookie Bailey Kirkland shaved over a minute off for a personal-best mark at the PBC Championship. 

Upperclassman Olivia Robertson has experience for the NCAA Regional. She's coming off a time of 23:44.9 at the conference meet while rookie Olivia Moriates was right behind her.

The Pacers are coming off a seventh-place finish at the PBC Championship.

This marks the first time since 2016 USC Aiken will look to have a complete team compete at the NCAA Regionals.

The race is set to begin at 10 a.m.