Cross Country's Stacey Johnson Earns SEC Female Athlete of the Week
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | Cross Country
University of Florida senior Stacey Johnson (Lichfield, England) was named Southeastern Conference Female Athlete of the Week on Tuesday for her outstanding performance at the Pre-NCAA Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
Johnson tallied an eighth-place finish, running her first 6K race as a Gator in 20:50.3, the seventh-best time in UF history. The time and finish were also the best ever for a Florida runner at the highly competitive national meet. She helped the Gators earn the runner-up spot in the White Race, second only to No. 1 Washington. Florida also jumped from the ninth-ranked team in the country to the fifth in this week's poll.
The senior was also the first SEC runner to cross the finish line in the White Race and recorded the best time of all conference runners at the Pre-National meet.
This is Johnson's first season wearing the Orange and Blue as she transferred from University of Birmingham in England. She was also the first Gator to cross the finish line at the Notre Dame Invitational, where the women's team placed third, earlier in the season. Her time of 16:41 ranked fourth overall in the Florida record books.
The Gators have this week off before they travel to Oxford, Miss., for the SEC Championships on Oct. 31. The women were voted to win the conference title by league coaches before the start of the season.
