AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn cross country program announced the team’s schedule for the 2024 season, which features three regular season meets under the leadership of fourth-year distance coach Aaron Kindt.
“There is a lot of excitement within our program heading into this fall,” Kindt said. “We return a wealth of experience on both teams. The men are led by seven seniors, and every woman from last year, besides one, is back for this season.”
On the men’s side, there are nine returners including senior Ryan Kinnane who placed ninth at SEC Championships and 12th at the NCAA South Regional last season. The women have nine returners as well including Johannesburg, South Africa native Gené Coetzee who finished 25th at the SEC Championships and 26th at the NCAA South Regional last year.
“We have one of our top runners from the 2022 season, Samantha Rogers, back into the fold after redshirting last fall,” Kindt said. “We believe we are in a position to have our best campaign, on both sides, since I started here.”
For the fourth consecutive year, the Tigers will open their 2024 campaign on Aug. 30 at the Foothills Invitational in Oxford, Alabama on the campus of Jacksonville State University. The meet, which the Auburn men and women won last year, will be held at Choccolocco Park with the men’s 5k kicking off the action at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Four weeks later, the team will trek to Columbia, Missouri to compete at the Gans Creek Classic hosted by the University of Missouri Sept. 27.
“Our schedule reflects the ambitious goals our teams have this season,” Kindt said. “Gans Creek Classic will provide a great early season test against several national ranked programs, and we return to the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, which will be one of the most competitive meets in the country this fall.”
Auburn’s final tune-up prior to the Southeastern Conference Championships will be Oct. 19 at the Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin.
“We believe this schedule provides us with the challenges needed to be successful in our goals at the SEC Championships this fall but also provides us a path to chasing a spot for the NCAA Championships in November,” Kindt said.
Postseason action will start the Tigers’ month of November with the SEC Championships on the campus of Texas A&M in College, Station Texas, set for Nov. 1. Two weeks later, Nov. 15, the team will travel to Tallahassee, Florida. for the NCAA South Regional.
The NCAA Championships will take place in Madison, Wisconsin Nov. 23.