Ohio Valley Conference champion #17 Eastern Kentucky is a slight favorite over ACC runner-up #18 North Carolina on the men’s side but of more interest is the individual competition.  Any team wanting to make the NCAA championships will likely need to get an automatic berth. 

Ohio Valley and defending Southeast region champion Soufian Bouchikhi (Eastern Kentucky), ACC champion Andrew Colley of NC state (3rd in ’12), and the runner-up last year and Southern Conference cross country champion and 2013 NCAA 10k runner-up, Paul Chelimo of North Carolina - Greensboro should make for a very interesting race. 

  ACC women’s runner-up #7 Virginia has been on a roll and they are a solid favorite over #19 William and Mary and #28 Duke.  Duke was ranked as high as #1 by some at the start of the season because of the large amount of freshmen talent.  Most teams taper right now and Duke may be one of the biggest benificiaries of that strategy.  Watch closely, there are likely to be three teams out of this region. 

Cally Macumber of Kentucky was sixth last year at the NCAAA meet and won this race last year but has not run as well after coach Jason Dunn left for Oklahoma.  Juliet Bottoroff has resumed her great running from 2011 and has only lost one race, the Wisconsin Adidas meet where she finished 11th.  Bottoroff has set meet records in almost every race this year and she is a solid favorite.