Despite a poor overall performance by the Gators at the 2013 NCAA Championships on Saturday, Mark Parrish and Agata Strausa had an eye-opening day in their final cross country race in a Florida uniform.
Parrish, the lone senior on the men’s team, finished 49th overall in a field of 253 runners, clocking a time of 30:54.5 in the 10K race. Although he ran 21.6 seconds slower than his championship race in 2011, the Tampa native finished 19 spots higher than the last time the men competed as a team in Terre Haute, Ind.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet,” Parrish said about running his last cross country race. “It’s nice because I’m hoping to move on to bigger things, better races, things like that, so it’s not over yet. It’s just closing one door and opening another.”
Strausa, who ran as an individual after Florida’s women failed to qualify for the NCAA Championship as a team, earned her first All-American nod for cross country by finishing 33rd out of 253 runners. She ran the 6K race in 20:42.1
Coach Paul Spangler felt that Parrish and Strausa had a strong finish to their cross country career.
“Their work ethic is phenomenal and in this sport, work ethic is key,” Spangler said of the seniors. “They’ve done a great job setting an example for the other athletes and certainly being leaders as seniors on the team, helping the other athletes out and helping them learn the ropes and the do’s and don’t of a collegiate distance runner.”
Parrish’s performance couldn’t carry the Gators, though.
The rest of the men fell short, with no one else on the team cracking the top-100 en route to a 29th-place finish out of 31 teams. Juniors Jimmy Clark (124th, 31:31.7), Eddie Garcia (150th, 31:47.3) and JL Hines (232nd, 32.53.7) and freshman Carlos Miranda (237th, 33:13.4) rounded out the Florida group that topped only Harvard and Georgia.
Redshirt junior Cory McGee also had a solid performance as an individual runner on the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course.
After failing to complete the course in 2011, McGee placed 83rd in her third crack at the NCAA Championships with a time of 21:13.2. She ran the course 39.9 seconds faster than her 2010 outing, resulting in her finishing 80 spots higher than she did in her freshman year.
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126.
Mark Parrish competes in the Mountain Dew Invitational men’s 8K on Sept. 14 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville.
