The 2014 Disney Cross Country Classic was not the be-all-end-all for the Florida men’s cross country team.
But a second place finish this past Saturday may have aided team in finding the confidence they’ve been missing heading into the seasons three biggest races. Florida wrapped up the race with 52 points, 27 behind winner Malone University.
For sophomore Carlos Miranda, the Disney invitational was the rebound race he needed.
Following the Mountain Dew Invitational in September, Florida coach Paul Spangler made these comments about Miranda and the team.
“We have some work to do,” Spangler said. “Our two, three and four runners did not have a great race today. Those guys have got to get better. The guys did well, but we have some work to do if we want to reach our goals.”
Miranda took coach’s words to heart these past couple weeks, capping it off with his best 8k race this season on Saturday. The sophomore finished with a time of 25:14.80 and a team best 4th place overall finish — the best Gator finish at the Disney Cross Country Classic since Anthony Morales finished second in 2008.
Another success story on Saturday was redshirt junior David Kilgore who posted just the second top ten of his collegiate career (sixth) with a time of 25:17.44. Mac Reynolds racked up his third top 15 finish this season with a 12th place result in Orlando this weekend.
Coach Spangler knows that the rest of the team needs to continue to improve with the SEC and NCAA Regional Championships looming.
“Our race plan was to come here and run a conservative first mile and build on it after that,” Spangler said. “I thought Carlos Miranda and David Kilgore did a real good job. We had a couple guys that didn’t step up today, and that hurt us today, so we have some work to do as we get ready for the Wisconsin adidas Invitational. We are not in the situation where we have an off day, so the team will have to step up.”
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Carlos Miranda races during the Southeastern Conference Championships on Nov. 1 in Gainesville. Miranda placed 29th, as the Gators finished second in the meet.
