The Florida men and women's cross country team’s both entered this weekends race at Wisconsin with promise of having success. Florida unfortunately left the Badger State with two disappointing finishes. Both teams were looking to improve off of their 2013 Wisconsin adidas Invitational finishes were they finished 22nd respectively. The finishes Friday proved to be anything but improvement, running away from was expected with a 36th place race from the men and 38th out of 41 for the women.
Florida coach Paul Spangler knows there is plenty of room for improvements.
“Today was far from our best race of the year and how we are capable of running,” Spangler said in a release. “We will make some adjustments in our training as we prepare for the SEC Championships.”
For the first time since transferring from Colorado, redshirt junior David Kilgore finished as the top Gator with a time of 25:22. The rest of the team mightily struggled with the next Florida runner finishing more than 30 seconds behind Kilgore.
Mac Reynolds had his worst race of the year after being UF’s most consistent runner through three meets. Reynolds was the last Gator to cross the line, finishing in 241st overall place with a time of 26:56.
As for the women only five runners competed, with Lauren Brasure finishing fastest for the third consecutive race.
Although it wasn’t her best race, the freshman is starting to emerge as the team’s top runner. Taylor Tubbs finished just a couple seconds behind Brasure with a time 21:32. Tubbs and Brasure are going to have to continue to have success if the Gators are going to have any shot at making a postseason run.
In Florida’s defence, the race in Wisconsin will be the strongest field they have raced against all year. 41 of the teams they faced at the meet are currently ranked nationally. The poor finish for the men and women puts them in a tougher spot than they had hoped for heading into SEC’s and more importantly NCAA Regionals. An at large bid for the Gators to head to National’s has basically withered away. Florida must look now for a top 2 finish at Regionals in Tallahassee to advance to the NCAA Championship.
The Gators will race next on Oct. 31st as the men and women head to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the SEC Championship.
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David Kilgore races in the 2013 Pac-12 Cross Country Cahmpionships in Louisville, Colo.
