Women's Cross Country Gets Set for National Championship; Criscione Will Also Run
Saturday, November 22, 2008 | Cross Country
The University of Florida 16th-ranked women's cross country team will compete in the NCAA Cross Country Championship on Monday, Nov. 24, hosted by Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind. The Gators earned an automatic bid to Nationals with a second-place finish at the NCAA South Regionals on Nov. 15. Senior Jeremy Criscione (Interlachen, Fla.) will represent the men's team as he qualified as an individual with a seventh-place finish at Regionals.
The women will run the 6K course at 12:08 p.m. (ET), while Criscione lines up at approximately 12:48 p.m. (ET) for the 10K race. UF runners are familiar with the LaVern Gobson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center as they ran it earlier this year at the Pre-National meet on Oct. 18. The women placed fifth in the blue division and the men placed 12th in the white division that day.
The women will be competing against 30 other programs, including 21 teams they have already faced in 2008. No. 11 Arkansas and Kentucky are representing the Southeastern Conference along with Florida.
This is the third straight year the women's team has qualified for the NCAA Championship and the fourth time it has done so in back-to-back years. Florida has made it to the National stage eight other times in UF history. The highest finish came in 2007 when the Gators took 11th place. The highest-placing individual was Shelly Steely, who was the runner-up in 1984.
Running for UF will be sophomore Charlotte Browning (West Sussex, England), sophomore Ali Crabb (St. Petersburg, Fla.), senior Jacy Kruzel (Cooper City, Fla.), freshman Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia), junior Julie Northrup (Vero Beach, Fla.), senior Sara Petrick (Apollo Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.).
Browning, Crabb, Kruzel and LaCaze all earned both All-SEC and All-South Region honors and LaCaze was deemed 2008 Female Freshman Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
Criscione has run in every NCAA Championship since his freshman year in 2005. Last season, he also competed as an individual, as he ran to his best finish, placing 99th in a time of 31:06.3. He ran his best time at Nationals his freshman year, finishing first for the Gators and 112th overall in 31:01.5.
The top 40 men and women from each race will earn All-American status.
Results can be found on www.ncaa.com following the races or by visiting the Indiana State website: www.gosycamores.com. Florida-specific results and release will be available on www.gatorzone.com as soon as results are in.
