Harrogate, TN – Following strong starts on both sides to the season, the Lincoln Memorial University Men's and Women's Cross Country teams head to Spartanburg for a key regional matchup on Saturday, competing in the Converse Kick-Off event.  

Saturday's race at the Milliken Research Center will serve as the Southeast Region Preview, as the region's top teams will return to Converse in November for the Regional Championships.  

Both teams enter coming off a third-place finish in the Golden Eagle Invitational, where LMU placed behind only Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech, as each side finished better than Division I opponent Austin Peay.  

Greta Chizzali took home the top finish for Lincoln Memorial in Cookeville, coming in eighth in the 4k with a 14:26.00 finish, good enough to earn her first South Atlantic Conference Runner of the Week Award. 

Luis Boerkey took home the top Railsplitter finish for the men, setting his new career-best 6k time at 19:34.53 to place seventh.  

The Splitters last ran in Spartanburg in 2024, as LMU ran there both during the regular season and for the Southeast Regional Championship. Both sides placed in the top 10 in each race, with the Women finishing fourth both times. 

"This week's competition will be the first to really show us how we compare at the conference and in the region," Head Coach Jeff Kavalunas said. "Both teams race at the regular distances (8k men and 6k women) and will have many conference and regional teams participating. One goal this week is also to help some of the younger runners become familiar with the course and adjust to the longer race distances."

Lincoln Memorial will take to the course starting at 9:00 a.m. for the Men's 8k, while the day will round out with the Women's 6k starting at 9:45 a.m. A link to the live results page can be found below. 

Live Results