Florida Southern Women's Cross Country Takes on SSC Championship

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern women's cross country team is preparing for the 2025 Sunshine State Conference Championship, which will take place tomorrow, Oct. 25, at Holloway Park in Lakeland.
 
Florida Southern will have lots of new faces to compete with a mix of returners from last year's event. The Mocs have seven returners on the squad who competed in the 2024 championship, when the women's team finished second overall, their best finish since 2009 at the conference meet.
 
The Mocs have had a great build-up to the SSC competition, opening the season with a second-place finish at the Swan City Invitational at Holloway Park. Grace Reed led FSC with a fourth-place finish, followed by Rachel Hockenberry in 10^th place as top-10 finishers. FSC was second overall in that meet, only behind the University of Tampa, and beating out fellow SSC teams Embry-Riddle, Palm Beach Atlantic, Saint Leo, and Eckerd.
 
The following week, the Mocs won their fourth team victory under head coach Stephanie Bylander, beating out 13 other teams, including NCAA Division I programs Georgia Southern and Florida A&M, at the HOKA Nights of Thunder Cross Country Fest in Tallahassee. Reed was again the top FSC finisher (3^rd overall), just ahead of Hockenberry, who was fourth overall. Freshman Reagan Chambless had a great start to the season with a fifth-place finish, followed by Alena Pezzoli and Emma Pfeiffer as top-10 finishers.
 
The Florida Southern College women's cross country team then faced its toughest task of the young season as the Moccasins traveled to Kenosha, Wis., to compete in the Lucian Rosa Invitational, finishing 19^th overall. Reed led the way for the Moccasins in 50^th overall in the 6K event. The second victory of the season came at the FLRunners.com Invitational, the first time since 2018 that the Mocs won two regular-season races. Chambless was the top FSC finisher in that one, finishing third overall. Heloise Pinto, Kara Simard, and Jane Haight were the top 10 finishers representing the Mocs.
 
In the Lewis Crossover, FSC was led by Hockenberry and Reed in a meet against nine teams inside the top-30 in the nation and 36 total teams. That meet was followed by the final meet of the regular season back at Holloway Park as Simard led the team with a time of 23:47, a new personal best, and 14^th overall to help FSC to a fourth-place finish. Simard was later announced as the SSC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for her strong performance.
 
Last year's championship was a great one for the women's program, finishing second overall and the best finish since 2009. Emma Mussante (2021-25) was the best FSC runner, followed by Ellie Fluman (2020-25) to earn a spot on the All-Championship team. Pfeiffer was 11^th overall in that meet, earning Second Team All-SSC honors. Nova Southeastern was the champion in the 2024 meet, beating out the Mocs for the top spot. Florida Southern women's cross country has seven SSC titles to date, the last being in 2006. FSC entered this season as the No. 3 team, as voted on by the SSC cross country coaches, behind a tie for first between Tampa and Nova Southeastern.  

The 2025 Championship race is scheduled to begin tomorrow morning at 7:45 AM at Holloway Park in Lakeland.