Pacer Cross Country Tied for Seventh in PBC Preseason Poll
AUGUSTA, Ga. – USC Aiken was tabbed to finish seventh in the 2010 Peach Belt Conference preseason women’s cross country poll as voted on by the league’s head coaches. The preseason poll was released on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 by the Peach Belt Conference office.
The Pacers captured a total of 32 votes to tie them with Flagler for seventh in the preseason tally.
USC Aiken commences its 2010 campaign on Friday, Sept. 3 at the Gamecock Invitational at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C. The meet is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m. USC Aiken placed second among all NCAA Division II squads at the 2009 Gamecock Invitational.
USC Aiken will play host to the First Annual Bridgestone-Pacer Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 25. The race will serve as USC Aiken’s first full meet at the Pacers’ top-of-the-line home course, Pacer Path.
The Bridgestone-Pacer Invitational will feature six different divisions. The collegiate men and women will get things underway first with the 8K collegiate men’s meet set to start at 8 a.m. The women’s collegiate meet will begin shortly thereafter at 8:45 a.m. Immediately after the collegiate meets, high school teams from around the area will compete with girls and boys varsity and girls and boys junior varsity teams scheduled to participate in the First Annual Bridgestone-Pacer Invitational.
Columbus State University was tabbed as the preseason women’s cross country favorite. The Cougars received seven of a possible nine first-place votes to finish with 74 total points, ahead of second-place Augusta State who had 67. Clayton State was third in the poll with GCSU fourth and UNC Pembroke fifth. Montevallo was sixth followed by USC Aiken and Flagler. Francis Marion (ninth) and Georgia Southwestern (10th) rounded out the voting.
The 2010 PBC Championships will be run on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Blanchard Woods Park in Evans, Ga. The races will be part of the first-ever PBC Fall Festival, which will hold the men’s and women’s soccer championships alongside the cross country championships in the same facility at the same time. The men’s race will begin at 9 a.m. that Saturday with the women at 9:45 a.m. The 2010 NCAA Regional will be held Saturday, Nov. 20, in Charlotte, N.C.
Below is the 2010 women's cross country coaches poll. Coaches were not permitted to rank their own teams.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | Total |
| 1. Columbus State | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
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2. Augusta State |
1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 |
| 3. Clayton State | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 |
| 4. GCSU | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 5. UNC Pembroke | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 6. Montevallo | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 45 |
| t7. Flagler | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 32 |
| t7. USC Aiken | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 32 |
| 9. Francis Marion | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 23 |
| 10. Georgia Southwestern | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 20 |
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