Cross Country Picked to Finish Second and Fourth in the SEC
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 | Cross Country
The Southeastern Conference coaches picked the University of Florida's women's cross country team to finish second in the league and the men to finish fourth, according to the poll released on Wednesday. The women also received two first place votes, the second-highest total.
Arkansas was picked to finish first on the women's side with nine first-place votes. The Razorbacks were followed by Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. Alabama was chose as the top finisher in the men's bracket with seven first-place votes. Arkansas, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee followed.
The Gator women are returning five runners who led UF to an 11th-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Championship, the highest finish in program history. Jacy Kruzel (Cooper City, Fla.) returns for her senior season after being the number-one finisher for the Gators in four meets in 2007, including the SEC and NCAA Championships. Kruzel earned an All-SEC nod for her eighth-place finish, along with sophomore Rebecca Lowe (Vaucluse, Australia), who placed 12th. Lowe and senior Sara Petrick (Apollo Beach, Fla.) also were named All-South Regional for their respective 12th- and 23rd-place finishes at the NCAA South Regional meet. Senior Kathryn Kramer (Tampa, Fla.) earned All-South honors in 2006, along with Kruzel. Lowe is also coming off a stellar track season in which she earned All-America status for placing fifth in the 5,000m event at the NCAA Championships and was named 2008 SEC Freshman Runner of the Year.
The Florida men finished second at the SEC Championship in 2007 for a bid to the South Regional, where they placed third. Senior Jeremy Criscione (Interlachen, Fla.) returns for another season after he represented the Gator men at the 2007 NCAA Championship with a 99th-place finish. He earned All-SEC honors in 2006 and 2007 and All-South Regional honors in 2005 and 2007. Junior Sean Blaney (Kissimmee, Fla.) will also be back after a breakout season. Blaney consistently finished in UF's top three and finished second for the Gators at the SEC and South Regional Championships in 2007, earning both All-SEC and All-South honors.
The women's team welcomes two newcomers to the squad, Charlotte Browning (West Sussex, England), a UNLV transfer who earned the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year award, and Genevieve LaCraze, who hails from Queensland, Australia. The men welcome three freshmen: the two-mile indoor Pennsylvania state champion Josh Izewski (Doylestown, Pa.), Miami's Daniel Manco, who placed third at the Florida state cross country championship two years in a row, and Alex Schanen (Jacksonville, Fla.), an All-American in the 5K.
Assistant track coach Todd Morgan leads the Gators in his first season at the helm of the cross country program. Morgan is a third-year coach who has worked with the team in an assistant coach's role for two years. He was with the team in 2006, when both the men's and women's programs made the NCAA Championships in the same year for the first time in school history. Morgan also works with distance runners (800m and up) on the indoor and outdoor track teams.
UF opens its season on Saturday, Sept. 20 in the annual Mountain Dew Invitational on the UF Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla. Both the men's and women's teams have won the invitational for the past two seasons. The women's collegiate 5K race starts at 8 a.m. followed by the men's 8K at 8:30 a.m.
2008 SEC Cross Country Coaches' Poll
| Men's Teams (1st place votes) | Total Votes | Women's Teams (1st place votes) | Total Votes |
| Alabama (7) | 14 | Arkansas (9) | 13 |
| Arkansas (2) | 19 | Florida (2) | 25 |
| Auburn (1) | 31 | Tennessee (1) | 31 |
| Florida | 37 | Georgia | 39 |
| Tennessee | 46 | Kentucky | 61 |
| Mississippi State | 56 | Auburn | 68 |
| Georgia | 68 | Vanderbilt | 68 |
| Kentucky | 80 | Alabama | 80 |
| LSU | 82 | Mississippi State | 83 |
| Ole Miss | 85 | LSU | 103 |
| Vanderbilt | 97 | South Carolina | 104 |
| Ole Miss | 117 |
