GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The NC State women, Florida State women and Virginia men each claimed NCAA Division I Cross Country Regional championships on Friday and earned automatic berths to the upcoming NCAA Championships.
 
The three team titles highlighted a solid day for the ACC, as the Syracuse, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech men also automatically qualified for the NCAAs with second-place regional team finishes.
 
The ACC’s two individual champions – Virginia Tech senior Peter Seufer and NC State senior Elly Henes – also flashed top form by sweeping individual gold medals at the Southeast Regional in Charlottesville, Virginia. Seufer led the men’s 10K field with a time of 29:20.7, while Henes placed first in the women’s 6K at 19:48.9.

The ACC's NCAA contingent increased on Saturday, as the Boston College and Notre Dame women's teams received at-large berths, and Florida State and NC State were at-large team selections on the men's side. In addition, Virginia Tech's Sara Freix, Louisville's Ivine Chemtau, and North Carolina's Paige Hofstad were selected as individual women's at-large competitors.

For a roundup of Friday's team and individual results, plus an update when Saturday’s complete field in announced, see the USTFCCCA Info Zone's Regional Championship Central: 
http://www.ustfccca.org/infozone/regional-championship-central.php?divno=35&venue=3

A capsule look at ACC teams that qualified for the NCAA finals on Friday, as reported by their respective sports information offices:

NC STATE WOMEN
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – With the victory at Regionals, the women automatically earned their 33rd NCAA Championships appearance. That number is more than any other Division I program in the nation. Wolfpack senior Elly Henes added to her list of 2019 accomplishments as she took home the individual title in the women's 6K.
 
NC State won the region with a total of 48 points, and all of the team's competitors finished in the top 30 in a field of over 250 runners. Three Wolfpack women earned top-10 finishes, with a total of six members of the squad turning in performances that earned them All-Region honors.
 
Henes, who claimed an individual ACC title just two weeks ago, led the field with a time of 19:48.9 to secure the regional crown on the women's side. After finishing as the runner-up at the meet in 2018, Henes beat out the rest of the competitors by six seconds on Friday.
 
Kelsey Chmiel took fourth place in 20:02.6 at her first regional meet. She was the highest freshman finisher in the women's 6K, and it was NC State's top finish by a first-year runner since Laura Hoer won the regional title as a rookie in 2010.
 
Julia Zachgo also placed in the top 10, with her 20:12.5 good for sixth overall. Mariah Howlett (19th, 20:46.9), Savannah Shaw (20:48.2) and Isabel Zimmermann (20:56.2) joined them in the top 25 to gain All-Region status. The honors were the first of Zachgo, Howlett and Shaw's careers, while Zimmermann repeated as an All-Region honoree.
 
FLORIDA STATE WOMEN
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida State women’s cross country team is heading back to the NCAA Championships in style.
 
The No. 12 Noles won their second consecutive NCAA South Region title in style on a cool and damp Friday morning at Apalachee Regional Park. Six Noles earned All-Region honors, led by the top-10 trio of Maudie Skyring (fourth), Elizabeth Funderburk (sixth) and Addi Coggins (seventh), as FSU finished with 42 points and a 58-point margin of victory over runner-up and No. 27 Ole Miss.
 
It is the second-largest margin of victory in the program’s history of eight region titles; the bi-product of a nearly perfectly executed race plan. The 42 points marked lowest winning score since 2013, when the Noles finished with 35 points and beat runner-up Vanderbilt by a whopping 81-point margin.
Skyring, a junior, led the charge by finishing the 6,000-meter race in 20:21.8, with Funderburk (20:26.1) and Coggins (20:31.7), both sophomores, close behind.
 
The deciding factor, however, was the supporting cast. Junior Jodie Judd earned her third All-Region honor, placing 12th (20:35.4) with junior transfer Lauren Ryan (15th, 20:38.6) and freshman Rebecca Clark (22nd, 20:42.6) also earning All-Region honors.
 
Mooney was 30th in 21:03.9, three seconds faster than she was on the same course in 2018 when she placed 18th. The six All-Region honors are the most for the Noles since the 2012 team, which finished second at the NCAA Championships, landed seven honors.
 
VIRGINIA MEN
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  – The No. 21 Cavaliers won the men's title for the third time in program history and first time since 2014.
 
All five of Virginia's male runners finished in the top 20 as the Cavaliers recorded a score of 79. No. 22 Virginia Tech earned the second automatic berth from the men's competition with a second-place finish and a score of 109.
 
Virginia had six runners named to the All-Southeast Region team including, for just the second time in program history, all five scoring runners from the men's team. Junior Gabriella Karas (Louisville, Ky.) earned the honor from the women's team, while senior AJ Ernst (Marblehead, Mass.), redshirt senior Ari Klau (West Hartford, Conn.), redshirt senior Alex Corbett (Burke, Va.), sophomore Peter Morris (Hamilton, Va.) and senior Lachlan Cook (Brisbane, Australia) earned the honor in the men's race.
  
The Cavaliers placed all five runners inside the top 20 of the men's competition with Ernst capturing the team's top time at 30:17.8 for an 11th-place finish. Klau placed 15th with a time of 30:27.8, while Corbett finished 16th with a time of 30:31.2 and Morris finished 17th with a time of 30:31.6. Cook rounded out the top five with a time of 30:33.5 to place 20th overall.
 
NOTRE DAME MEN
MADISON, Wisc. – The Fighting Irish secured their NCAA spot second at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional at the Zimmer Championship Course.
 
The 19th-ranked Irish placed four in the top-25 to earn All-Region recognition, while all seven Irish runners finished in the top 30. No. 17 Purdue claimed the regional title, and the top four teams were separated by just eight points as the race remained tightly packed through eight kilometers.
 
Sophomore Dylan Jacobs led the way for the Irish, placing eighth in his first collegiate cross country 10K with a time of 30:20.5. Junior Yared Nuguse finished 10th in 30:28.9, followed by Andrew Alexander (15th, 30:44.1), Kevin Salvano (25th, 30:55.7) and Matthew Carmody (30:59.4) to make up the scoring contingent.
 
SYRACUSE MEN
BUFFALO, N.Y. –  The No. 18 Syracuse men took a somewhat unique path to earning their automatic NCAA bid.

With adverse course conditions, the NCAA Northeast Regional was raced on area streets around the University at Buffalo on Friday morning. With the Orange men trailing for much of the race, a strong final 4k moved 'Cuse up into qualifying position finishing second to earn one of the region's two automatic bids to the NCAA Championship.

Joe Dragon was the top 'Cuse runner, moving up seven spots over the final 2k to take sixth overall (28:59.6). Nathan Henderson also turned in a top-10 performance, placing 10^th in 29:03.06. Nathan Lawler (21st/29:21.1) and Kevin James (22nd/29:21.6) also earned USTFCCCA All-Northeast Region honors with Dragon and Henderson for their races. Dominic Hockenbury rounded out the Orange scoring with a 27th-place finish in 29:32.4.

Harvard won the region with 59 points, besting the Orange's 86. 'Cuse came out ahead of No. 8 Iona (96 points) for the final automatic spot out of the region.

VIRGINIA TECH MEN
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Behind Seufer and all-region performances from Fitsum Seyoum and Diego Zarate, the Virginia Tech men's cross country team came in second place and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The Hokies accumulated 109 points, coming in just behind host Virginia in the race for the team crown. The top two teams in each region received automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.

The Tech men's program will be making its eighth appearance at the NCAA Championships being held next Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Seufer, who won the individual crown at the ACC Championships two weeks ago, went to the front right from the start at the regional. He stayed in the lead, or in the lead pack, the entire race and then pulled away in the last 1,000 meters of the 10K race to win in a career-best time of 29 minutes, 20.7 seconds.

Seufer, a redshirt senior from Lynchburg, Virginia, now has won two ACC titles, an NCAA regional title, finished second at the 2018 Southeast Regional and earned All-America honors in 2018 in each of the past two seasons.

Seyoum followed his All-ACC performance two weeks ago with an All-Southeast Region effort Friday. He came in ninth with a time of 30:06.9 and earned all-region recognition for the first time in his career. So, too, did Zarate, who came in 22^nd with a time of 30:36.9.

Two other men's runners finished in the top 50 for the Hokies. Bashir Mosavel-Lo was 38^th with a time of 31:01.2, while Antonio Lopez Segura finished 39^th with a time of 31:03.0.