Cross Country Heads to Tuscaloosa for NCAA Regionals
Friday, November 13, 2009 | Cross Country
The University of Florida men's and women's cross country teams travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in the NCAA South Regional Championships on Saturday, Nov. 14. The men will run the 10K race at 11 a.m., followed by the women's 6K race at 12:15 p.m. The women are ranked first in the region, while the men hold the No. 4 spot.
The teams that place first and second earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind. There are also 13 national at-large bids available based on teams' performances throughout the 2009 season.
The South Region is made up of teams from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The No. 3 women will be racing against 31 other schools, including seven Southeastern Conference opponents. The UF women have finished ahead of all the SEC teams it will face on Saturday, including a first-place finish at the SEC Championship on Oct. 31. No. 9 Florida State and No. 29 Tennessee are the only other ranked teams competing. Florida State is the only team that Florida has finished behind that will be competing.
The Lady Gators are competing against 11 other schools they ran against in the regular season, excluding the SEC Championship. The Gators finished first at the Mountain Dew Invitational, beating South Florida (third), Jacksonville (fourth), UCF (fifth), North Florida (sixth), FAU (seventh), Miami (10th) and Florida State's B team (12th). At the Notre Dame Invitational, the Gators were the top regional finisher in third, while FSU took seventh and Georgia finished 15th. At the Pre-National meet, the Gators were again the top finisher of the South Region in the blue division, coming in second. Georgia was next in 19th place, while Alabama (23rd), Jacksonville (33rd) and Georgia Tech (36th) followed.
On the men's side, the Gators will line up against 27 schools from the South Region, including seven SEC opponents. Alabama is the highest-ranked competitor, voted to the sixth spot in the country. The Tide is followed by No. 21 Florida State and No. 25 Auburn.
The UF men have run against nine other South Region opponents (not including the SEC Championship). The Gators were the first-place finisher at the Mountain Dew Invitational, while North Florida placed third, USF eighth, Miami 10th and FIU 12th. In South Bend, the Gators took 17th, while Florida State finished sixth and Georgia 14th. At Pre-Nationals, the Gators finished 15th, while Alabama took second and Auburn finished sixth. Georgia finished after UF in 24th, as did Georgia Tech in 31st.
In 2008, the women earned an automatic bid to the National Championships with a second-place finish at the South Regional, behind Florida State. Current sophomore Genevieve LaCaze (Daisy Hill, Australia) was the top finisher, placing fifth and earning All-South honors. Juniors Ali Crabb (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Charlotte Browning (Pulborough, England) also took home the honors with 10th- and 13th-place finishes, respectively.
The Gator women have won the regional meet twice in the history of the program, in 1997 and 1998, while finishing second four times. Three former Gators ran to individual South Region titles.
The men placed fourth in the 2008 South Regional race, behind Alabama, Auburn and Florida State, respectively. In 1986 the Gators captured the regional title, but were the runners-up three times in the history of the program. Former Gator Steve Zieminski is the only male Florida runner to win the South Regional individual title, which he did in 2004.
