The UF runners are hoping to secure spots later in the season with a strong performance at the FSU Invitational on Saturday morning.
Coach Todd Morgan said the meet will give the younger runners a chance to step up and get another race under their belts before the Southeastern Conference Championship on Oct. 31.
Junior Ali Crabb, who finished fifth at the SEC meet in 2008, will be one of six women participating in Tallahassee on Saturday. Crabb said she has not run the FSU course since her senior year in high school.
"I know some of the girls (who will be running) haven't had a chance to race in a while and they are ready," she said. "They have been training well, and it should be a great race for them. I'm excited to get a chance to run again and prepare for SECs."
Alison Babb, Callie Cooper, Sydney Devore, Mandy Perkins and Erica Taltos will also be running in the 5K race with Crabb.
At the SEC Champsionship meet, Morgan can run 10 women. He said there are three spots up for grabs and anticipates the women who run well at this invitational to be considered for those positions.
The No. 9 women's team jumped six spots in the polls after a third-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational. This is the first time the team has been ranked in the top 10 since at least 1997, when UF's records begin.
"We are getting a group of girls who are not only hard working but are also very focused and determined," Morgan said. "When you bring those things together, great things happen."
While the women's team is trying to maintain momentum, the men's team is trying to bounce back from its 17th-place finish at Notre Dame.
After falling short of the team's top finish, senior Justin Taylor, who will not race in Tallahassee on Saturday, felt the men's team was not as focused as it needed to be prior to Notre Dame.
"When the race started, something didn't click. It didn't go as we planned," Taylor said. "If we don't step up, we know this is going to be a very short season. We don't want that."
Similar to the women's team, Morgan has opted to send younger runners to Tallahassee than those who will run at the Pre-NCAA Invitational on Oct. 17.
Geoffrey and Michael Anderson, John Mitchell, Carlos Phillips and Alex Wills will be the five running for the men's team in the 8K. Morgan anticipates some of these runners will also race at the SEC meet.
"The guys have to right the ship and get things going their way," Morgan said. "Unfortunately it just took a little bit of a beat, of an ass-whooping, to get there."
