Despite a slew of personal-best runs for the Gators, the women’s cross country team finished second at the Disney Cross Country Classic on Saturday.
Florida finished behind only Malone University at the meet.
Julie Macedo led the pace for the Gators. The sophomore finished third overall with a time of 17:33.18, a mere 2.06 seconds behind first-place runner Tina Oprean from Malone and one second slower than her personal best time for a 5K race.
“Julie Macedo ran one of the gutsiest races I have seen,” coach Paul Spangler said. “She was leading after the mile and did everything she needed to do to win the race, but just got caught at the finish line.”
Freshman Taylor Tubbs was the only Gator other than Macedo to place in the top five, finishing fifth with a personal-best time of 17:41.40.
“Julie has improved a lot from last year,” Spangler said. “And Taylor coming in and kind of being the surprise of that freshman class — (she) has performed beyond what we expected her to do this early in her career.”
Junior Macy Huskey and senior Brittany Koziara, who finished 15th and 16th, respectively, also ran their best 5K races since joining the Gators.
The team is now turning their attention to the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Saturday — the team’s lone meet before the SEC Championships — where Spangler also hopes to see the return of his top four runners: redshirt senior Agata Strausa, seniors Shelby Hayes, Stephanie Strasser and junior Cory McGee.
Hayes and Strasser have not raced since the season-opening Western Carolina Invitational on Aug. 30 due to injuries.
“They’re progressing,” Spangler said. “Hopefully, if everything goes well, we will have them back for Wisconsin.”
McGee has not competed for the Gators this season after running in Moscow over the summer for the 2013 IAAF World Championships.
Spangler said he is ready to see how the team will fare in the Madison meet this weekend.
“I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve had over the past couple of weeks,” he said. “With the couple injuries we’ve had on the women’s side early on and how they’ve progressed, and of course the improvement of Julie and Taylor and Cory and everybody in that mix, I think we’ll go into Wisconsin ready to race.”
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126.
Senior Agata Strausa (left) races at the Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 14 in Gainesville.
