Greenville, SC – Back-to-back Conference Carolinas champions, North Greenville University is picked atop the 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll.
The Trailblazers received 13 first place votes and 209 points to sit atop the pole ahead of 2023 champion Converse University. The Valkyries earned the final two first place votes and 198 points as they are followed by Lees-McRae College who accumulated 172 points to come in third. The University of Mount Olive (155) and King University (150) rounded out the top five.
Southern Wesleyan University came in sixth with 140 points while Belmont Abbey College followed in seventh with 134 points. UNC Pembroke and Young Harris College came in eighth and ninth with 128 and 110 points, respectively. Ferrum College rounded out the top 10 with 89 points.
Emmanuel University (85), Erskine College (65), Barton College (63), Francis Marion University (57), and Chowan University (22), round out the poll.
Southern Wesleyan took sixth place as a team in the Conference Carolinas Championship last year. They will return All-Conference runner Elise Foster, who took third team honors with her 21st place finish in the championship. Foster will be joined by fellow returners Freda Ruiz and Ellie Adams.
The Warriors will kick-off the regular season on September 4 as they travel over to Spartanburg, SC to take part in the Eyeopener XC Invite hosted by USC Upstate. They will then host their home race, the Susan Rouse Invite, on September 19. Southern Wesleyan will hit the road for three more races before traveling to Kernersville, NC to compete in the Conference Carolinas Championship on November 7.
The 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Cross Country Championship will take place on Saturday, November 7 at 9:00 a.m. at Milliken Research Park in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The preseason poll was voted on by the league's head coaches and they can't vote for their own school.
