ACC Championships Await Orange

The Syracuse Cross Country teams are back in action on Friday to kick off the fall championship season at the ACC Championships. The Orange men look to repeat last year's trip to the podium, while the women look to improve from last-year's fifth place finish.
Both Orange teams received votes in last week's USTFCCCA Poll, despite their last races taking place over a month ago on September 25. Notre Dame enters the meet as the top ranked men's team in the conference at No. 6. NC State leads the ACC on the women's side, sitting at the No. 3 spot.

Meet Info:

The meet will be televised live on ACC Network Extra. Men's Broadcast | Women's Broadcast
The men's 8k final opens the competition at 10 a.m. with the women's 6k championship to follow at 11 a.m.
The meet will take place at the WakeMed Soccer Park course in Cary, North Carolina, marking the course's third time hosting the conference championship. The Syracuse men took home the title the last time the event was held at the WakeMed course in 2016.
Live race results will be available here: Live Results

Orange on Top:

The men's cross country team returned to the podium last year for its sixth ACC title in seven years in the league. Dating back to their BIG EAST days, Syracuse has claimed nine conference championships in its last 11 attempts on the men's side.
The Orange men won the ACC Championship the first five years in the conference, a run that trailed just Maryland (6) for most consecutive ACC titles in conference history.
The 'Cuse men had an individual champion in three of the first six championships it competed in. Martin Hehir (2014) and Justyn Knight (2016, 2017) won individual titles. Paige Stoner claimed the first women's title for the program in 2017, sweeping the podium with Knight.

Last Year's Championship:

The men's team earned a redemption victory over Notre Dame, finishing with 68 points, five ahead of No. 20 Irish for the conference crown.
Ranked No. 28 at the time, the Syracuse men bested a deep ACC field with five teams ranked ahead of them in that week's USTFCCCA poll.
SU showed team depth, with the top-six 'Cuse finishers crossing the line within 14 second of one another and each earning All-ACC honors.
Nathan Henderson led the way for the Orange men, finishing ninth overall in a time of 24:39.0.
The victory was Brien Bell's first as a head coach.
The Orange women finished fifth, led by All-ACC finishers Amanda Vestri and Rachel Bonner.

Last Time Out:

Syracuse swept the Three-Team Battle in Beantown, with both teams earning decisive victories.
The men dominated the 8k race, posting eight of the top 10 overall finishers, while the women held off Army to secure the squad's first win in 2020.
JP Trojan and Amanda Vestri claimed individual victories in the men's and women's race, respectively.