GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) cross-country programs will compete in the 2020 Southern Conference championships Saturday morning at Mercer University. It will be the first competition for any UNCG program since men's tennis defeated the College of Charleston on March 13.
Last year, the women finished third overall and the men were fifth at the SoCon championships.
For junior twins, Joe and
Nicholas Thoma of the men's cross-country team, competing together will be meaningful. They enjoy every opportunity they get to represent UNCG because it's significant.
Joe is older than Nicholas by a minute. They were born in Valhalla, New York, and moved to Whippany, New Jersey in third grade.
"Before we moved to New Jersey, Nick and I were living together in the same room with bunk beds," Joe said. "After we moved, we got our rooms which were nice and it was a good time apart, but then when we came to college our parents said, 'You should room together.' We thought it would be a good experience and it would just be easier too. It turns out, it was just a lot better getting to know him more than just going into each other's rooms."
Nicholas, who is the more outgoing twin, loves editing and creating videos. He is majoring in business marketing.
"I found that I have a really strong passion for media in film and partially photography, but mostly film," said Nicholas who competed in last year's SoCon cross-country championship competition. "I thought that it was something that one day I could incorporate into business marketing or something along the lines of film and stuff. As of right now I just kind of do that as a side thing, I like to film and edit a lot on the side."
Making movies could also be in his future one day.
"I love film so much because you can tell such a huge story through something as simple as a camera lens," Nicholas said. "That's something that I always go by. Everybody has a story to tell, I think that capturing those stories or getting a broader picture of who people are outside of what you just see on social media. Even though film somewhat is part of social media, I see all these highlights of people's lives, but sometimes through film, you get to know who a person is. That's something that interests me as well."
Meanwhile,
Joe Thoma is an information systems and management major, which is part of UNCG's distinguished Bryan Business School.
"It took me some time to get used to because I came in here as an exploratory major, so I wanted to just explore my options and the different classes that they have here," Joe said. "Our school is just great for all the programs they provide us, I'm really happy about choosing the Bryan Business School."
While neither expected to be spending their collegiate careers in Greensboro, they did create some nice memories during high school track here. They ran in national meets held at North Carolina A&T so they had familiarity with the city.
"I ran at that stadium and I enjoyed it, I met coach Pearson and we talked," Joe said. "I met coach Donohue, and we talked. It was nice once I got here and visited, it was definitely an interesting choice to come down here, but in the end, I've enjoyed it."
