The 2012 Pre-Nationals Meet was a success for both sides of the Gator cross country team on Saturday. The men and women each garnered top-ten finishes in a field heavy with talent while getting a preview of the course the NCAA Championships will be run on this fall.
Junior Mark Parrish anchored the men’s side, running a collegiate-best 8K time of 23:42, finishing 16th overall in the field.
“Mark Parrish ran a great race and had a huge personal record,” coach Paul Spangler said. “He finished with the top guys and he certainly proved himself as one of the top guys in that race at 16th.”
Sophomore John-Logan Hines exceeded expectations to finish second for the Gators while Jimmy Clark overcame a bout with the flu to finish third.
Sophomore Eddie Garcia and junior Matt Mizereck came in at 24:28 and 24:35 to round out Florida’s scoring group in just 52 seconds. The men finished 10th overall.
Spangler considered Mizereck’s race progress in his development.
“This was a big step forward for him,” Spangler said. “This isn’t where he wanted to be at the beginning of the year, but it was a huge step. He’s going to continue to get better and that showed today.”
Spangler expects the men to use Pre-Nationals as a springboard for the SEC Championships in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 26.
“We have some work to do on the men’s side going in to the SEC Championship and today was a positive step in being where we need to be to have some success in two weeks,” he said.
On the women’s side, senior Florence Ngetich led the way, finishing 24th overall with a time of 20:35 in the 6K race.
“Florence ran a smart race, followed the race plan and was really patient for the first part of the race and moved up in the last couple of miles – she ran very, very well,” Spangler said.
Junior Stephanie Strasser, senior Callie Cooper, junior Agata Strausa, and senior Mandy Perkins rounded out the Gators scoring corps in just over a minute. Ngetich, Strasser, and Cooper each ran collegiate-best times. The women came in ninth overall.
“I feel confident,” Spangler said. “We do have a couple of things to work on here and there tactically, but we have two weeks. These things are fixable and we’ll be ready for the SEC Championship.”
