Florida freshman Kelvin Cheruiyot ran into the history books Friday morning in Knoxville, becoming the fourth man in program history to win the SEC individual cross country title and the first in 42 years. It was a historic moment for the Gators, but the team didn’t realize the full significance of the win until well after Cheruiyot broke the tape.
“Keith Brantly texted me, he was our last champ back in 1983, and I had no idea what the history was,” associate head coach Will Palmer said. “So I guess that’s shame on me.”
Florida’s women, who entered the 2025 SEC Cross Country Championships ranked third in the nation, lived up to the expectation that Cheruiyot’s run set. Led by sophomore Judy Chepkoech, the Gators scored just 45 points, 72 less than runner-up Alabama, as they ran away with the eighth conference title in team history.
“It was just a great team effort,” Palmer said. “There’s some things we can keep improving on, but you try not to nitpick the wins too much because they’re really hard to come by. Just grateful that we’re able to put a full team out there and healthy enough and competitive enough to do what we did.”
Men’s
The first several kilometers of the race didn’t reveal much, as all of the projected top contenders were in a very tight pack.
As the kilometers ticked away, athletes began dropping off one by one. At five kilometers, there were seven men that had separated themselves from the field, each representing a different school. Cheruiyot, the lone man clad in Florida’s championship white in the pack, was sitting toward the back of the group but looked comfortable.
With the final kilometer approaching, Cheruiyot moved to the front of the pack, positioning himself to take off at a moment’s notice.
“After going with the guys for 7K, that was the plan with Coach,” Cheruiyot said. “The last K, he said, ‘It’s up to you now’... After 7K, I decided to push.”
The decisive move came with a little over 500 meters to go. Cheruiyot blasted away from Arkansas junior Timothy Chesondin, who was also leading with one kilometer to go at Pre-Nationals, and Auburn sophomore Nickson Chebii.
Cheruiyot crossed the finish line in 23:08.26, putting over a three-second gap on Chesondin and Chebii in the closing stages. Along with breaking the four-decade-long winless streak, he also became the first Florida man to earn All-SEC First-Team honors, which is given to the top eight finishers, since Jimmy Clark in 2015.
Behind Cheruiyot, the Gators finished 11th in the team race. Despite shaving 120 points off their total from last season, they only managed to improve one spot. Freshman Oussama Allaoui continued his fine form with a 44th-place finish, while freshman Jonathan Leon also snuck into the top 50, placing 49th.
“There’s basically a pileup of teams that gets really, really tight from where we’re at in 11th all the way up to fourth and fifth place,” Palmer said. “I actually think a lot of teams in the SEC have gotten a lot better as well, but I thought our guys ran really hard and had a really good competitive effort across the board.”
Women’s
On paper, the Gators were a heavy favorite in the team race entering these championships, being ranked 17 spots ahead of the next best SEC team in the national polls. However, the No. 25 Alabama Crimson Tide, the defending champions, managed to stay afloat in the early parts of this season while still awaiting the return of star junior Doris Lemngole. Lemngole, the defending individual SEC and national champion, raced on the track at the World Championships in Tokyo last month, and her debut on the grass was sure to shake things up.
Florida executed pack running to perfection through the first half of this race, as its top four runners – seniors Hilda Olemomoi and Tia Wilson, Judy Chepkoech and freshman Desma Chepkoech – were all inside the top 10, giving the Gators a comfortable edge in the team race.
Lemngole made a huge move during the fourth kilometer, and Olemomoi was the only other athlete bold enough to follow her. Olemomoi did her best to stay alongside her former teammate, but Lemngole proved again why she’s been nearly unbeatable in the collegiate ranks over the past two years, eventually cruising to a 15-second victory.
Olemomoi faded to seventh as the race wound down, but Judy Chepkoech charged toward the end to finish runner-up in 19:47.12. In two career races for the Gators, Chepkoech has led Florida to team wins as its top finisher.
“I’m so happy to be second at the SEC Championship,” Chepkoech said. “What has motivated me is the teamwork.”
Wilson followed up Olemomoi in eighth, 10 spots better than she finished at this meet last year, while Desma Chepkoech placed 10th.
At last month’s Gans Creek Classic, the only regular season race where Florida had run its A-squad, the Gators’ only weakness was a low-placing fifth scorer. Sophomore Reagan Gilmore, who didn’t race at Gans Creek, vanquished those concerns today with an impressive 18th-place finish.
While Gilmore rounded out Florida’s scorers, the Gators had four more runners finish inside the top 60, highlighted by freshman Claire Stegall in 26th and senior Beth Morley in 31st. Friday’s showing means that the Gators only need one of Gilmore, Stegall or Morley to have a good run in Columbia at nationals for a shot at the first NCAA title in program history.
“We feel pretty good about the team we’re putting out there from top to bottom,” Palmer said. “I’ve been saying that one of the huge strengths of this team is that we can score a lot of different people… I think they’re starting to buy into that.”
Florida now sets its goals on the national postseason, with a trip to the NCAA South Regional in Huntsville, Alabama, next on the schedule on Nov. 14. The Gators will try to punch their tickets to the following week’s National Championship by finishing top two in the team race, which is likely for the women, or by being one of the four best individuals not on a qualifying team, which will be Cheruiyot’s target.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney.
Paul is a senior sports journalism student and is the cross country/track and field reporter in his third semester with The Alligator. In his free time, you can catch him scrolling Twitter to keep up with an endless flood of track results and training for the media 800-meter race at the World Athletics Championships.
