Florida gave its visiting teams a rude welcome Saturday afternoon.
The Gators men's and women's cross country teams continued their dominance at the Mountain Dew Invitational with first-place finishes in both events.
Florida has swept the local and regional competition seven of last eight years. The women extended their streak to eight years, while the men reclaimed the tournament title after Michigan won in 2011.
Strong performances from Agata Strausa, Mark Parrish, and fifth-year senior Josh Izewski carried Florida.
Strausa finished first for a women’s team that controlled the race. Senior Florence Ngetich, freshman Julie Macedo, senior Callie Cooper, and Stephanie Strasser all finished in the top five. Strasser came across the line 25 seconds after Strausa.
“I’m really happy,” Strausa said. “That just shows we’re on the right way. It’s just the start of the season but we will definitely progress. It gives everybody a lot of confidence.”
The women totaled a perfect score of 15 points, finishing 48 points ahead of second-place finisher North Florida. They were about eight seconds faster than the women’s team from last year, according to coach Paul Spangler.
Florida men all finished in the top ten and ended up with 28 points, anchored by Parrish and Izewski.
North Florida, the second-place finisher, finished with 108 points.
Sophomores Jimmy Clark, John-Logan Hines, and Eduardo Garcia rounded out the men’s scoring group. Hines and Garcia each showed significant improvement from last season cutting more than a minute off their times from the Mountain Dew Invitational in 2011.
Spangler said that they cut about 20 seconds off last year’s time as a team.
Many of the runners echoed Spangler in saying that they stuck to the game plan pretty well. The home crowd also helped motivate the runners down the stretch.
“Coming out here and just running—having people line the entire course just yelling ‘Go Gators’ or yelling your name—when it gets late in the race, that really starts to help,” Izewski said. “When you’re starting to hurt, you’ve got some encouragement from your friends, fans, and Gator Nation.”
The Gators now enter a three-week training period before they head to Tallahassee for the Seminole Invitational on Oct. 5.
