The Gators hoped to crack the top 20 at the NCAA Championships. But they barely finished in the top 30.
In the men’s first national championship appearance as a team in five years, Florida (780 points) limped to a second-to-last finish, 30th out of 31 teams. Despite being ranked behind 28 of their 30 opponents, the Gators hoped for a promising final race.
“Obviously, [it] was not the finish we wanted,” coach Todd Morgan said. “But our men’s team had a strong year, made it here to the NCAA championship and saw what they need to do to get better and to be here again in the future.”
Sophomores Mark Parrish and Matt Mizereck, along with freshman Jimmy Clark, led the charge for Morgan’s squad all season. Their dominating performances in the Southeastern Conference Championship and South Regional gave the Gators back-to-back second-place finishes.
But their efforts Monday weren’t enough. Parrish led the team with a career-best mark in the 10k (30:32.9) but finished 68th overall.
However, Mizereck dropped from his usual No. 2 spot to the fifth point-scorer on Monday, finishing 241st overall. That left senior Josh Izewski and freshman J.L. Hines to pick up the slack. Izewski finished 210th, while Hines came in 236th with a career-best 32:21.3 mark.
Those efforts were not enough to overcome the sudden fallout by Mizereck, decimating UF’s already slim-chances of competing.
Wisconsin (97 points) topped all competitors, winning its fifth title. Florida was unaccustomed to the level of competition, as it mainly raced against conference foes. UF was one of only two SEC schools represented at the meet.
While the men struggled, UF senior Genevieve LaCaze (20:32.0) and junior Florence N’Getich (21:11.1) finished 42nd and 117th overall, respectively, in a field with 254 runners.
LaCaze’s 42nd-place finish was the best of her career, and it was Florida’s second-highest NCAA individual finish since 1997.
“We are really proud of what she did today — and as a senior, for everything she’s done for the cross country program and representing the Gators,” Morgan said.
