Florida Cross Country Squads Ready to Compete for SEC Titles Friday in Nashville

Florida’s 2012 men’s and women’s cross country squads will embark on the 2012 SEC Championships Friday, Oct. 26, at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, as Vanderbilt University plays host to this year’s conference meet in Tennessee.

Race day will kick off with the women’s 6K at 11 a.m. (ET), followed by the men’s 8K at noon (ET), with the awards ceremony following. Admission to the 2012 SEC Cross Country Championships is free.

The Orange and Blue own eight SEC team titles combined, three for the men (1955, 1986, 1987) and five for the women’s team (1984, 1996, 1997, 2009, 2010). Last year, UF had six All-SEC selections (three men & women) and four runners named to the SEC All-Freshman Team (three men, one female), while current sophomore men’s runner Jimmy Clark (St. Johns, Fla.) was the 2011 SEC Male Freshman of the Year.

 

Florida’s women enter the 2012 SEC Championship after claiming third place at the 2011 SEC Championship in Maryville, Tenn. The Gators’ third-place finish marked the program’s fourth consecutive top-three league finish and eighth consecutive top-five showing. Florida has won five league titles on the women’s side (1984, 1996, 1997, 2009, 2010) and boasts four individual champions and five titles between them, with the last individual title coming in 2009 when Rebecca Lowe captured the crown.

The Florida ladies are coming off a ninth-place showing at the competitive Pre-Nationals meet in Louisville, where the squad got its first glimpse at some top-level competition while scoping out the 2012 NCAA Championship course. Under first-year assistant track and cross country coach Paul Spangler, the women’s team has seen a total of 21 collegiate best marks between its season-opening two-mile race, the Mountain Dew Invite 5K race and two 6K competitions at St. Leo and Pre-Nationals.

Gator senior Florence Ngetich (Eldama Ravine, Kenya) holds the seventh-fastest 6K in the league entering the championships (20:35.30), while sophomore Stephanie Strasser (Fernandina Beach, Fla.) ranks 12th (21:00.80) and senior Callie Cooper (St. Augustine, Fla.) (21:09.80) checks in 19th to round out UF’s top-20 runners.

The Gators lost top 2011 SEC finisher Genevieve LaCaze to graduation, while fifth-place finisher Cory McGee will take a redshirt this season, leaving Ngetich as UF’s top returning SEC scorer from last season. Ngetich checked in 10th in the field of 104 athletes.

After chalking up a second-place finish in 2011, the men’s team’s highest finish since back-to-back second-place finishes in 2006 and 2007, the Gators are setting their goals high and aiming for the program’s first SEC Championship in 25 years. The Gators own three SEC team titles all-time on the men’s side (1955, 1986, 1987) and three individual titles, with the last from Keith Brantly in 1983. UF will be looking to make it 16 straight top-five finishes and will strive for three consecutive top-three finales at the league meet.

Similar to the women’s squad, Florida’s men have seen a drastic drop in times under Spangler, as junior Mark Parrish (Tampa, Fla.) turned in the fourth-fastest 8K mark in Florida history at Pre-Nationals in Louisville October 13. Parrish went 23:43.2 to jump into fourth, while sophomore JL Hines (Orlando, Fla.) checked in 10th on UF’s top-10 8K times list with his 24:00.70 mark. Parrish and Hines’ career-best times are two of 17 lifetime bests for the Florida men’s squad this year between one 5K race and three 8Ks leading up to the conference championships.

Entering the league championship in Nashville, Parrish owns the fifth-fastest 8K (23:43.20) among his peers in the SEC, while Hines checks in eighth (24:00.70). Clark and sophomore classmate Eddie Garcia (Jacksonville, Fla.) have the 19th (24:27.40) and 20th (24:28.80) best marks in the league through the 2012 fall season thus far.

Parrish, a 2011 USTFCCCA All-South Region honoree and All-SEC first team member was Florida’s highest finisher with a third-place showing at the 2011 SEC Championship.