Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Keith Michlig

 

AMERICUS – The Georgia Southwestern State University women’s cross country team enters its 2020 season picked to finish sixth of 11 teams in the Peach Belt Conference according to the coaches preseason poll released today. It’s the highest preseason ranking for GSW in program history.

The Lady Hurricanes return four of their top five runners from a year ago, including sophomore Catherine Hall, who led GSW in four of six races last year and set the sixth fastest 6K time in program history on November 9, 2019 at the NCAA Division II Southwest Regional. Senior Quincy Mayer led the Lady Hurricanes with a third place finish at the Willie Laster Meet on September 28, 2019 where she posted the ninth-fastest 5K time in school history. Sophomore Sarah Early was the Lady Hurricanes’ No. 2 runner and senior Madeline Toth was No. 5 across the line for GSW at the 2019 Peach Belt Conference Championships. Junior Grace Regan returns to the field following an injury in 2019.

GSW head coach Paula McDonald added four freshmen to the 2020 roster: Savannah Miller from Tifton, GA, Anna Parker from Maysville, GA, Megan Strickland from Roswell, GA and Brianna Zupko from Sylvester, GA will all have an opportunity to contribute in their first collegiate season.

Flagler College holds the top spot in the 2020 poll with 97 points and seven of 11 first place votes, followed by Augusta and North Georgia. GSW received 47 points, 10 behind fifth place UNC Pembroke.

GSW opens its 2020 schedule on Oct. 10 at the Gary Wilson Invitational hosted by the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Ga.

The full coaches poll is below. Coaches were not permitted to rank their own teams.

2020 Peach Belt Conference Women’s Cross Country
Preseason Coaches Poll

Rank	Team	Points (1st place votes)
1.	Flagler	97 (7)
t2.	Augusta	88 (2)
t2.	North Georgia	88 (2)
4.	Columbus State	70
5.	UNC Pembroke	67
6.	Georgia Southwestern	47
7.	Clayton State	40
8.	Francis Marion	36
9.	Lander	35
10.	Young Harris	20
11.	USC Aiken	17