Moccasins Head to Huntsville for the Third Time in 2024 to Compete for the Region Championship

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern women's cross country team heads to Huntsville, Ala., site of two of their four races so far this season, for the 2024 NCAA South Region Championship which will be held Saturday morning at 11:15 a.m. (ET). The Moccasins are coming off their best Sunshine State Conference Championship performance since 2009 and hope to secure a trip to the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time since 2006.
 
The Moccasins enter the event as the third ranked team in the South Region according to the most recent USTFCCCA Women's Cross Country Regional Rankings. Lee, the champion of the Gulf South Conference, enters as the top-ranked team in the region followed by Sunshine State Conference Champion Nova Southeastern in second. The Moccasins round out the projected automatic qualifiers in the group after their second-place showing at the SSC Championship. Tampa who finished just behind the Mocs will be battling with FSC for the final AQ spot.
 
Senior Emma Mussante and graduate student Ellie Fluman will lead the Mocs as the pair enter their fourth and final NCAA South Region Championship of their respective careers. The pair picked up First Team All-Sunshine State Conference honors following the 2024 SSC Championship and are coming off USTFCCCA All-South Region honors for their performances at last year's region championship.
 
The next two in the mix for the Mocs are sophomore Emma Pfeiffer and graduate student Cheyenne Young. The pair finished third and fourth on the squad at the SSC Championship and look to repeat that performance tomorrow morning. Pfeiffer will be making her regional debut after missing out the past two seasons while Young makes her second-straight appearance for the Mocs. Young took third on the squad last season at the regional. The pair earned Second Team All-Sunshine State Conference honors following this year's championship.
 
The next three finishers at the SSC Championships for the Mocs were sophomores Emma Nales-Torchio and Grace Reed while senior Mya Stam came in sixth for the team after loosing her shoe early in the race. Stam will contend with Pfeiffer and Young for that top three or four spot while Nales-Torchio and Reed will battle to get points for the Mocs.
 
 The top three teams from each regional meet will automatically advance to the championship finals which will be held in Sacramento, Calif. on Nov. 23. Ten at-large teams from throughout the country will be selected by the NCAA Division II Women's Cross Country Committee based on a number of criteria found on NCAA.org. The top two individuals who are not part of a qualifying team will also automatically advance to the championship finals as well as all individuals who finish in the top five at a regional meet and are not part of a qualifying team will automatically advance to the championship finals. An additional eight at-large individual selections will be selected by the committee.
 
The 2024 NCAA Championship meet will be held at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, Calif.
 
The Mocs took fifth overall at the 2023 NCAA South Region Championship as Mussante and Fluman led the way as they took 18^th and 23^rd overall, respectively. Young came across seven spots back in 30^th while Stam and Nales-Torchio rounded out the FSC scorers in 45^th and 50^th. The championship is scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. (ET) Saturday morning.