The Basics
Event: NCAA South Regional Championship
Location: Jackson, Miss. | Choctaw Trails
The Lead: Matt Garis earned all-region honors as the Maroons put together their best showing at the regional cross country championship in 21 years.

Meet Highlights:

• Roanoke collected 265 points to finish in eighth place in the 22-team field in the South Region championships, which were hosted by Belhaven University.
• Garis led the way with a lifetime-best time in the 8K race, finishing in 26:17.9 to place 31st. He garnered All-South Region honors in the process.
• Seth Perry logged a time of 27:09.4 to finish in 51st place and score 50 points. Fellow freshman Elias Ammon came in just one second later, clocking in at 27:10.4 to place 53rd and notch 51 points.
• Ian Fellows placed 66th and recorded 65 points with a mark of 27:31.0. Sam Brasler capped the scoring with a time of 27:38.3, placing 68th and tallying 67 points.
• Gabe Ramirez finished in 82nd place with a time of 28:17.3, and Jackson Coombes came in 84th at 28:22.0.
• Lynchburg narrowly won the team title, totaling 51 points to finish just ahead of Emory (56 points) and Washington and Lee (59). The Hornets' Chasen Hunt was the individual medalist with a time of 24:29.62.
• The Maroons' team performance is their best since the 2003 season, when Roanoke placed fifth at the Southeast Regional. RC improved on its 2023 positioning by eight spots, having finished 16th at last year's regional meet.

Head Coach Derek Workman:
"Six of our seven guys that raced today are freshmen and sophomores. To have that young of a group help us achieve our best regional team finish in over two decades is an outstanding achievement, and one that we are very excited about.

"I was really proud of our guys. They battled and stepped up. While we didn't all run great races, we had some young guys step up big time. Obviously, Matt getting all-region in the last cross country race of his career was a very high note to end on!"
 
Up Next: Roanoke has concluded its 2024 cross country season.