Following a two-week break, the Florida cross country teams return to competition, this time on the road in Seminole territory.
The Gators men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to Tallahassee for the Pre-Nationals Invitational beginning Friday morning. Twenty-six Florida athletes will compete on Friday, 14 men and 12 women.
Friday’s meet will feature four total races. The men’s Garnet race will start the day off with an 8K competition at 8 a.m, followed by the women’s Garnet 6K at 8:35 a.m.
The Garnet competition includes the top 39 men’s and 36 women’s teams organized by seed. The Gators will have eight runners competing in each of the Garnet races.
The Garnet runners for the men include: Nick Deal, Ethan Geiger, Matt Mule’, Josh Stern, Javi Vento, Angel Vicioso, Joe Wester and Cavan Wilson.
The Garnet runners for the women include: Imogen Barrett, Emily Culley, Maria Fernandez, Pamela O’Brien, Stephanie Ormsby, Vasileia Spyrou, Parker Valby and Liina Winborn.
Following the Garnet runners, the action will conclude with both a men’s and women’s open competition. The men’s open 8K is set to begin at 9:10 a.m. and the women’s open 6K race will begin at 9:45 a.m.
Florida’s Orlando Ciciloni, Michael Fiore, Reed Legg, Ryan Miller, Cade Monk and Aiden Villasuso will race in the open 8k, while Gianna Forte, Keleigh Scallon, Jordan Shapiro and Cheyenne Young participate in the 6k..
The Gators won’t compete again before the SEC Championships on Oct. 29. The teams will get a glimpse of their conference competition Friday, with seven other SEC teams joining the Gators in Tallahassee: Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and Vanderbilt.
In their most recent competitions, the Gators took home first and second place victories at the UCF Invitational, but the team did not place at the Notre Dame Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend.
Contact Sara Kate Dyson at skatedyson@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @sarakatedyson.
