Sophomore Phil Duncan and junior Shelby Hayes each notched their best collegiate times and first event victories en route to Gators' team victories on Saturday morning at the Saint Leo Cross Country Fall Invitational.
Florida finished with five runners in the top six in women's competition, amounting to a 17-point victory.
"On the women's side, Shelby Hayes did a great job," Gators coach Paul Spangler said. "We used a different strategy today, went out a more even pace, and her 5K mark was actually faster than her time at [the Mountain Dew Invitational]."
Spangler added that Hayes' performance was especially impressive due to the difficulty of the course at Saint Leo.
Hayes earned the first event victory of her college career with a personal-best 6K time of 21:26.20. She set her previous mark (23:21:94) at the 2011 Southeastern Conference Championships in Knoxville, Tenn.
Senior Mandy Perkins finished second behind Hayes, while freshman Shelby Davidson finished third. Juniors Brittany Koziara and Sarah Davis took fifth and sixth place.
Saturday's event was the first 6K race for Davidson and Koziara at Florida.
On the men's side, Duncan was one of four Gators in the top 10. All five scorers finished in the top 15.
Duncan topped his impressive performance in the Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 15, when he posted a then-collegiate best 26:01.86 in the 8K. Duncan finished first with a 26:00.40.
"A big congrats to Phil Duncan on his first big college victory; a personal best on a difficult 8K course today," Spangler said. "Phil did a great job midway through the race of catching the lead pack and passing them over the last half of the race. Our fifth scorer, John Mitchell, also did a great job; he passed about 10 guys in the last half of the race to secure the team victory for us."
Redshirt freshman Harsha Torke finished fourth. Freshman Elliot Clemente was Florida's third scorer, earning a sixth-place finish. Similar to Duncan, Clemente improved upon his career-best 8K mark, lowering it from 27:04.93 at the Mountain Dew Invitational to 26:57.80 at Saint Leo.
Gators distance track runners Dan Wehunt and John Mitchell, running their first 8K races since 2009, finished ninth and 14th overall to score fourth and fifth for UF.
Mitchell eclipsed his previous career-best time of 28:10.65 at the FSU Invitational in the fall of 2009 with Saturday's 28:02.60.
Sophomore runner Phil Duncan posted a career best en route to his first collegiate victory on Saturday at the Saint Leo Cross Country Fall Invitational. The UF men's team finished with four runners in the top 10.
