Midterms are just around the corner, but Agata Strausa and the Florida cross country team are preparing for a different kind of examination.
"It's kind of a test — the last test in a way, and also the first chance to see where we're at," Strausa said.
Both the men and women will be let loose for the first time this season as they head to Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday.
UF has opened the season with three consecutive first-place finishes.
The first few races represented a feeling-out process, as coach Paul Spangler narrowed the team to a traveling squad.
On the men's side, Phil Duncan picked up an individual victory at the Saint Leo Invitational, clinching the seventh and final roster spot.
The race for the last spot on the women's side is still up in the air. The women will have eight runners compete at Pre-Nationals to try to sort out the roster.
"We've got a good problem right now, in that, we don't know who our No. 1 runner is," Spangler said. "We don't even know who our top seven are. Every day it seems like in practice, somebody steps up and really has a breakthrough workout. It's a good problem to have."
At the same time, the race will mark the Gators' first true test. Florida faces nine opponents ranked in the top 30 on the men's side and eight top-30 teams on the women's side.
Pre-Nationals will be the first competition in nearly a month for UF's top runners.
"We haven't really been able to race all-out," junior Mark Parrish said. "So that's a nice change of pace. We're just going to get cut loose and go run as hard as [we] can."
The weekend will also serve as a preview of the course the NCAA Championship meet is run on. If UF ultimately qualifies for the national meet, seeing the course in advance will provide an advantage.
"If you can see yourself out there running that Nationals course, it's going to be a lot easier to work towards that goal," Parrish said. "Once everyone realizes like, 'Hey, we can get out here, this is what it looks like,' everyone's going to work really hard to get back there and make Nationals."
Junior runner Agata Strausa, runs in the Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 15 at the Mark Bostick golf course.
