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Friday, March 29, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Parrish breaks 20-year-old Florida record in 5,000-meter race

With about 400 meters to go in the final leg of the men’s 5,000-meter race, Mark Parrish knew he was capable of finishing his run on time.

Pulling on the outside of the Dempsey Indoor track in Seattle, Parrish moved into position to kick and get out in front of a herd of runners ahead of him.

Grasping onto a lead and booting his way to the end of the race, Parrish was abruptly clipped from behind by a competitor, which was enough to drain the power from his legs and disrupt his rhythm.

However, Parrish managed to cross the finish line and come in fifth place with a time of 13:43.15. When he looked back and saw his time displayed on the clock, he realized he had shattered a 20-year-old UF record by 16 seconds.

The new record holder in the 5,000m said he had a feeling this was coming. He also knew what the record was before going into the race.

In fact, he has known for a couple of years.

“It’s really nice to get on a track record, because I already had the cross country record,” Parrish said. “But track, it’s pretty much you’re the best if you have broken that record.

“Just getting a record like that, I’m really proud to be able to say that our years that I was here had some really good Gator athletes who were pushing the boundaries, going where the program has never gone before in terms of distance, so I’m really proud to be a part of that.”

The lanky 6-foot, 135-pound senior has been preparing his entire tenure at UF to pull off the record-breaking performance during the track season.

Coach Mike Holloway and assistant coach Paul Spangler talked about their predictions for Parrish’s run, but neither thought he would break the record.

“The biggest performance of the weekend was Mark Parrish,” Holloway said. “I don’t know how you ever discount that performance. That was a great job by him and coach Spangler.

“Mark has big goals and big dreams, but I know coach Spangler thought he was going to run fast but quite not that fast.”

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The Tampa native will try to end his UF indoor career on a high note when the Gators compete at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships on Thursday.

When the Gators head back to College Station, Texas, to compete this time for the SEC title, Parrish will run in the 5,000m, 3,000-meter and the steeplechase.

After breaking the school record in the 5K, the senior’s preference is to run the 3K, which he believes he is better at.

“The event that I’m really going to be looking at to run fast in is going to be the 3k,” Parrish said.

“Quite a few people in that race would run faster than me. I think that with the fitness level in that, I can probably run as fast as they can.”

Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence

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