Everything went according to plan for the Florida cross country teams Friday morning at the NCAA South Regional in Huntsville, Alabama.
In a near mirror performance of the SEC Championships two weeks earlier, the women rolled to a commanding team victory even while shorthanded, and freshman Kelvin Cheruiyot left the field in his wake en route to a win in the men’s race. This time, however, the Gators’ victories earned them not just bragging rights, but a ticket to next week’s NCAA Championships.
“The ladies executed really well,” associate head coach Will Palmer said. “We’re in a good spot and we were able to get out of the region meet in one piece, which is always the objective.”
Women’s race
The lineup looked different this time out for the Gators, as freshman Desma Chepkoech and sophomore Reagan Gilmore, Florida’s fourth and fifth scorers from SECs, did not race. By the time the race ended, their absence was less of a concern, though, and simply another opportunity for the Gators to flex their depth.
“We knew we had a deep team and we knew we could be flexible with our personnel,” Palmer said. “A lot of what we were looking at is how many races has this person run throughout the season.”
Even while shorthanded, the Gators took the lead in the first kilometer and never looked back. Seniors Hilda Olemomoi and Tia Wilson and sophomore Judy Chepkoech exhibited pack running to perfection. There was only one recorded split where an athlete broke up their sequence, and the trio crossed the finish line in fourth, fifth, and sixth, separated by less than half a second.
With the top three holding up their end of the bargain, eyes turned towards Florida’s eventual fourth and fifth scorers, freshman Claire Stegall and senior Beth Morley. Stegall impressed with a 15th-place finish, moving up 10 spots over the second half of the race, while Morley placed 22nd.
“Just kinda had to take a little bit more responsibility, just trust my teammates” Stegall said. “Today we had to just get the job done, didn’t need to do anything special. Just run our races and qualify for nationals.”
When the team totals were tallied up, the Gators scored only 52 points. That placed them 49 points ahead of second-place Tennessee and only seven points behind the total that a full-strength Florida squad managed at the SEC Championships.
“I think we learned a little bit about what some of the team members are going to do when they’re asked to step up for one another… We had some unsung heroes of the day in Isobelle Jones [55th place] and Caroline Wells [35th].”
Men’s race
In contrast to the women’s race, which was strung out early on, Cheruiyot found himself in the middle of a tight pack for most of the race. Just past the five kilometer mark, the top 11 runners were separated by less than one second.
“You have to start a little bit with the guys, with the pack,” Cheruiyot said. “You’re preserving the energy going towards when the race gets more competitive."
Cheruiyot’s modus operandi in his wins at the Pre-National Invite and SEC Championships last month was a late move to create just enough of a gap to take the win. That trend held true in Huntsville, as he pulled away from a trio of SEC foes over the final 400 meters to win by nearly three seconds.
With his win, Cheruiyot became the first male Florida runner to qualify for the national championships since 2015. He’s also the first Gator to win this meet since 2013.
Now, with plenty of program history in his wake already, Cheruiyot sets his sights on becoming the highest-placing man in UF history at nationals, an honor currently shared by Dan Middleman’s and Tom Nohilly’s 13th-place finishes in 1990 and 1988, respectively.
“Starting my cross country season, I had a target that I wanted to make it to nationals,” Cheruiyot said. “Unfortunately we didn’t make it as a team… Come next year, I know that we will be a really good team.”
Freshman Oussama Allaoui also earned All-Region honors by merit of his 21st-place finish, consistently moving up all throughout his first collegiate 10-kilometer race.
The Gators’ scoring quintet was rounded out by sophomores Jonathan Leon, Riley Novack and Josh Ruiz in 36th, 43rd and 63rd, respectively. A seventh-place team finish for the men is also the best by the Gators since 2015, and Florida has improved its finish at this meet every season since Palmer arrived in Gainesville.
“It’s been a learning season for the men, and that was the plan,” Palmer said. “I think they’re better now than when they started the season. We’re excited about how they raced today… We’re breathing down the necks of some teams that we haven’t been all that close to in recent history.”
The final chapter in this storied season for the Gators will take place on the familiar grass of the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri, on Nov. 22 for the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
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.
