WINGATE, N.C. – Anderson's men's cross country team clinched a spot to the NCAA National Championships on Saturday morning, securing a second-place finish, the best in program history, at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships to punch their ticket to Nationals in two weeks.
 
"The guys executed the race plan perfectly." said head coach Kevin Eagle.
 
The top three finishing teams at each NCAA Regional Championships qualifies for the NCAA National Championships. Anderson finished the race with a team score of 58. The Trojans finished on the scoreboard with 5^th, 9^th, 12^th, 13^th, 19^th, 21^st and 25^th place counting towards the team's score.
 
Leading the Trojans on the course and finishing 5^th overall was redshirt-junior Elliot Dotson (Simpsonville, S.C.) with a 10K time of 31:21, while redshirt-senior Spain Vaughan (Greer, S.C.) finished 9^th on the leaderboard with a time of 31:43. In a field of 175 athletes, all seven Trojans finished within the Top-25 to earn All-Region honors.
 
Finishing 12^th overall was freshman Grayson Gibbons (Simpsonville, S.C.) with a time of 31:59, with sophomore Will Cronin finishing just behind with a time of 32:02. Rounding out the scoring for the Trojans was junior Joey Tindale (Rock Hill, S.C.) finishing 19^th with a time of 32:30.
 
Finishing in the Top-25 were junior Sean McAdams (Greenville, S.C.) and senior Angel Galan placing 21^st and 25^th with times of 32:33 and 32:49 respectively.
 
"We wanted to pack up right behind Wingate and just make sure we kept ourselves in the race at all times. We learned from last year's regional meet that we need to be more assertive and early on. That is exactly what we did by placing all seven in the Top-25 and securing seven All-Region positions. We now have two weeks until the big show to recover and sharpen up."
 
The Black and Gold enter the final homestretch of the 2025 season when they travel to Kenosha, Wis. for the NCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 22.