Youth is lively.
It’s energetic. It’s tenacious.
For the Florida men’s and women’s cross country teams, the youth hasn’t just survived in a supporting role.
It’s thrived and led the charge.
With an 11-woman freshman class — one that equals last season’s entire roster in strength of numbers — the team has benefitted from newfound depth.
And heading into this weekend’s Southeastern Conference championships, that depth will need to show if the team hopes to knock two-time defending champs Arkansas off of its pedestal.
The squad will be back at full strength for the first time in weeks: Redshirt sophomore Becky Greene, scratched from Pre-Nationals after running the brunt of the Notre Dame Invitational with one shoe, is full go, while junior Taylor Tubbs will return from illness.
In their absence, however, a pair of international rookies filled the void, seemingly emerging as the team’s top-two runners of the future.
Scandinavian athletes Maria Larsen and Elisabeth Bergh have placed among the top four Gators at every meet they’ve competed in, pushing Greene and Tubbs for the team’s top spots and leading fellow freshmen, such as Maddox Patterson and Caitlin McQuilkin-Bell.
"I thought Maria Larsen did a great job; 21st overall as a freshman, true freshman, really mixed it up with some of the top runners in the country, the kind of who’s who of college cross country." coach Paul Spangler said Monday.
"I don’t think she really kind of understood how good a performance that was for her, but I was very, very pleased with her race. I think she showed at Pre-Nationals that she can mix it up with anybody, and even though she’s a freshman, she’s mature beyond her years."
Naming a seven-runner roster composed of Greene, Tubbs and five freshmen, Spangler is comfortable with resorting to a young roster for a large meet.
The fourth-year cross country coach didn’t hesitate to commend his freshman runners for their early showings.
"Elisabeth Bergh, her first 6k of her career, I thought she did a solid job," Spangler said.
"(She) has really done a great job for somebody coming in as more of a track athlete. Maddox Patterson, another runner, another freshman for us, who’s done a really good job; I thought she had her best race of the year at Pre-Nats."
Much of the same stands for the men’s contingent, which reeled in an eight-man freshman recruiting class to support star redshirt seniors Jimmy Clark and Eddie Garcia.
The men enter the week with the weight of momentum on their side.
Of the seven true freshmen who raced in the pair of races on Oct. 16 and 17, five posted collegiate bests, with Tampa native Jack Guyton’s 24:58.6 8k setting the pace for his peers.
If Guyton and company hope to trounce leviathan Arkansas, victors of 22 of the last 24 Southeastern Conference championships, their best must get better.
"I think we’re as good as them up front, 1 and 2 spot," Spangler said. "…We just gotta have some production out of our 3, 4 and 5."
And with their eyes set on gold, the cross country youth movement needs to do what it has up to this point-deliver.
"It’s a very, very different lineup for the men and the women compared to last year’s group," Spangler said,"but we’ve got a strong freshman class, and you’ll see a lot of new names on the roster for SECs this weekend."
Follow Alejandro Lopez on Twitter @ajlb95
UF's Taylor Tubs races during the 2015 Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 19, 2015, at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
