North Carolina State University Athletics
Cross Country Set for ACC Championships
10/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
RALEIGH, N.C.- The NC State men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Earlysville, Va. for the ACC Cross Country Championships hosted by the University of Virginia on Oct. 31.
The race will be held at the Panorama Farms Cross Country Course, with the women's 6k race starting at 10 a.m. followed by the men's 8k race at 10:45 a.m.
Coverage
-For the first time ever, the championship will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
-To follow the race: ESPN3
Geiger's Outlook
"The conference right now has three teams ranked in the top 15- Syracuse, Virginia and Florida State. As far as NC Sate is concerned we will be lining up four freshmen, three sophomores and one junior. Half of the athletes are freshman and I've told the guys all along this year that you're young but that doesn't mean you can't be successful.
"We haven't raced as well at Notre Dame and Pre-Nationals but I expect a much better performance at the conference championship. We're led by Sam Parsons, a sophomore, and Graham Crawford, a junior, who was All-Conference a year ago. Those are the leaders of the pack and after that we have a number of freshmen and sophomores in the lineup. They're young guys but they're training at a much higher level right now and I expect that to translate to the cross country course."- Rollie Geiger, men's head coach
Henes' Perspective
"As a group, we are happy with the progress we've made over the last few weeks. The ACC is a tough conference, with six teams in the top 30 nationally, and we are excited about that challenge. We have yet to put together five athletes running really well on the same day, but have been deep enough to have good team finishes anyway.
"I feel we are ready to have eight athletes run well Friday, and to keep our top five spread fairly close. If we execute as planned, we feel that we will be in great position to be very successful this weekend."- Laurie Henes, women's head coach
Scouting the Conference
-Four men's and six women's teams from the ACC currently rank in the top 30 of the NCAA Division I National Coaches' Poll.
Top 30 ACC Men
No. 3 Syracuse
No. 13 Virginia
No. 15 Florida State
No. 28 North Carolina
Top 30 ACC Women
No. 12 Florida State
No. 13 Virginia
No. 15 North Carolina
No. 16 Syracuse
No. 18 NC State
No. 30 Boston College
-12 men's and 14 women's squads are listed in the top 15 of the USTFCCCA Division I Regional Team Rankings in their respective regions.
Last year at ACC's
-At the 2013 ACC Championships, the men's team finished 8th and the women's squad finished 7th.
-NC State alum Andrew Colley took top honors in the men's division last year, while Joanna Thompson was the top finisher on the women's side with a 7th place individual finish.
-Colley is a back-to-back individual champion, also earning top honors in 2012, as well as a back-to-back recipient of the ACC Male Performer of the Year Award in 2012 and 2013.
Wolfpack History at the ACC Championship
-NC State leads the conference in the total number of ACC Championships won and also has the most individual ACC Champions.
-The Wolfpack has won the championship meet a combined 36 times. The men's program has taken the top honors 16 times, while the women's program has finished first at the annual meet 20 times. In 2002, the women's team also took home a first place tie with Wake Forest. Head coach Rollie Geiger has led the program to 34 of the 36 wins since he came to NC State in 1979.
-NC State has produced a total of 23 ACC Champions with Coach Geiger responsible for all 23 of them in his tenure as head coach.
-In addition, the program has also produced 184 All-ACC selections- 99 men and 85 women, which leads the league in that category.
To keep up with the latest information on NC State Cross Country:
Twitter: @PackXC
Facebook: NCStateCrossCountry
