For Florida sophomore Carlos Miranda, success has always been a part of his cross country career.
In high school, Miranda was named the 2012 Naples Daily News Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year after winning FHSAA’s 3A Region 3 three years in a row.
He was able to carry his high school momentum into his freshman year of college, where he was a starter and raced in all seven meets for the Gators.
Miranda was tabbed the Southeastern Conference Men’s Freshman Runner of the Week in three consecutive weeks and was named to the 2013 Cross Country SEC All-Freshman Team.
Miranda wanted to take last year’s accomplishments and bring them into the 2014 season.
"This year I just wanted to be a threat in cross country, be top three on my own team," Miranda said. "Not just that but I wanted to run 24:10 and 24:15 right around there. You know I would just like to make it to Nationals again, be as consistent as I can and try to win SEC’s."
But Miranda struggled early this season, finishing as the last Gator at UF’s home meet on Sept. 20. Coach Paul Spangler was relying on Miranda being successful this season when deciding to redshirt seniors Jimmy Clark and Eddie Garcia. Fortunately, things have started to click for Miranda recently, as he finished as one of the top two Gators in the last two meets.
Miranda knows his continued success is a key part in turning around the team’s season.
"It’s tough, I have to step up more as a leader," he said. "I’m only a sophomore and I have Coach telling me that I am a leader to this team now. But in the back of my head I know that I only have a year under my belt. I’m making the transition as well as I can, it has just been difficult to do that."
Time is ticking for this Florida squad as the Gators finished out the regular season and are now preparing for the postseason.
Next on the slate for the Gators will be the SEC Championship on Friday. Miranda is hoping to repeat on his success in this event last season, when he set a personal best 8K with a time of 24:55.40 and finished as one of the top freshmen at the event.
He has lofty expectations heading into next weekend, to say the least.
"For SEC’s, obviously I want to do better than last year where I finished 29th," he said. "I would like to finish top 10 and or even make the All-SEC Team. I want our guys to be focused and not let the races we’ve had in the past affect what is going to happen at SEC’s."
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Carlos Miranda races during the 2014 Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 20
