Matt Mizereck knew that the Gators’ season would be in jeopardy if they didn’t finish in the top two at the NCAA Regional Meet in Tallahassee on Friday.
“Yeah, I don’t want to try and think about it personally,” he said. “The last thing I want to do is be waiting on the bus to see if we got enough points to go.”
Unfortunately for Florida, that is exactly what they are doing after the men finished third and the women fourth in the South Regional. The men finished behind Florida State and Georgia while the women came in just behind Vanderbilt and Georgia.
FSU swept both the men’s and women’s meets.
Senior Florence Ngetich powered her way to a life-time best, finishing fifth overall in the field with a time of 20:16 in the 6K race. The transfer student originally from Kenya expressed anxiety beforehand at the chance of this being her final race in Orange and Blue.
“It makes me really sad,” she said. “Really sad…I just want to win. I want it so bad, at regionals in my senior year.”
Fellow senior Callie Cooper also set a personal best of 20:41, finishing 2nd on the Gators and 22nd overall. Junior Agata Strausa, senior Mandy Perkins, and freshman Shelby Davidson rounded out the Gators top five scorers.
Perkins also set a lifetime best of 21:14.
On the men’s side, junior Mark Parrish continued to be the team’s best runner, finishing fifth overall with a 10K time of 30:40. Sophomores Jimmy Clark, Eddie Garcia, JL Hines, and Mizereck rounded out the top five in a swift 28 seconds from front to back.
Now, both the men and women are left to just sit and wait to see if they will move on to the NCAA Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. A bid would give the men their second consecutive trip while the women would qualify for the sixth time in seven years.
