Countdown to Saturday Continues for ACC Cross Country Runners

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NCAA DI Championships (pttiming.com)

FINISH LINES

• Ten Atlantic Coast Conference teams are scheduled to compete in the 2021 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday (Nov. 20) at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.

• Five ACC men’s teams – conference champion Notre Dame, Florida State, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Wake Forest – are slated for the men’s 10K final, along with individual selection JP Flavin of NC State. Six-time defending ACC women’s champion NC State will be joined by Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Syracuse.

• The women’s 6K championship race begins Saturday’s action at 10:20 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by the men’s 10K race at 11:10 a.m. Please see here for ticket information. NCAA cross country fans unable to attend in person can watch the Championships live on ESPNU or the ESPN App. Coverage is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

• Syracuse captured the lone ACC men’s team championship to date in 2015, and current ACC membership owns three men’s titles – Syracuse also in 1951 and Notre Dame in 1957.

• Virginia’s back-to-back NCAA team titles in 1981 and 1982 continue to stand as the ACC’s only ones in women’s cross country thus far. The NC State women captured the AIAW national crown in 1979 and 1980.

• The ACC delivered an impressive collective showing at the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships (held last March at Stillwater, Oklahoma,  following postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic), with the Notre Dame men and NC State women each placing second in the respective team scoring and Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt earning the men’s silver medal.

• The Fighting Irish men and Wolfpack women both returned all of their leading runners this season and FSU’s Wildschutt will enter this Saturday’s meet riding the momentum of an ACC Championship and last Friday’s winning South Regional 10K time of 29:07.1.

• The NC State women, whose 35 all-time NCAA Championship berths are the most of any program nationally, hold a No. 1 national ranking in the most recent USTFCCCA poll, followed by No. 8 North Carolina, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 12 Florida State, and No. 20 Syracuse.

• The Notre Dame men hold a No. 4 national ranking, with Wake Forest leaping to No. 17 after claiming last week’s Southeast Regional team title….