Junior Agata Strausa had never run a race as a member of the Gators cross country team before her victory at the Mountain Dew Invitational.
Nonetheless, no one seemed very surprised when she came across the line in first.
“Well, we knew she was talented,” coach Paul Spangler said. “The girl’s got skills.”
Strausa was born in Riga, Latvia and attended school at Hermann-von-Helmholtz in Germany before transferring to Florida in January. The urge to become a part of Gator Nation became too much for her to resist.
“I really wanted to make the American experience, and I just fell in love with the Gators on my recruit trip,” Strausa said.
“This is where I want to represent. It’s a great team, great coaches — it seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
Her transition to the Orange and Blue happened quicker than most would have expected. In her first track meet as a Gator in February, she placed 10th in the women’s 3,000 meter.
No one would have faulted Strausa, who ran for a club team in Germany before coming to America, if she had a bit of an adjustment period.
After all, she was in a new climate, surrounded by new coaches and teammates, living in a different country.
“You’re used to doing things one way and now you’ve got a new coach and you’re doing things differently,” Spangler said. “For her to come out here and have a really good race in her first one gives her a lot of confidence in what we’re doing as far as training but also gives her a lot of confidence as we move later into the season.”
Strausa will play an important role moving forward as the Gators try to replace Genevieve LaCaze, who graduated this spring and ran for Australia in the Olympics this summer.
“We want to go to nationals as a team and that’s what we are all working to,” Strausa said. “We work really hard and we look really good in practice. We just have to stay healthy.”
Junior runner Agata Strausa, runs in the Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 15 at the Mark Bostick golf course.
