No. 5 Women's Cross Country Prepares for NCAA Championships
Saturday, November 21, 2009 | Cross Country
The No. 5 University of Florida women's country team looks for its third consecutive win as they head to Terre Haute, Ind., for the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 23. The Gators earned an automatic bid to the meet after winning the NCAA South Regional Championship on Nov. 14. They also placed first in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Oct. 31 to capture the Southeastern Conference title.
The women will begin the 6K race at 12:58 p.m. (ET) on a course that is familiar to the team. The Gators ran on the LaVern Gobson Championship Cross Country Course on Oct. 17 at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational, where they finished second in the white race to top-ranked Washington.
The team will be running against 30 other programs, all of whom who are ranked except for Michigan State. The Gators have previously run against 15 of the teams this season and have consistently been a top finisher. Florida is the only team from the SEC to qualify for the meet and No. 8 Florida State is the only other team from the South Region. In previous meets, UF has only fallen to two other teams racing Monday. No. 1 Washington and No. 3 Princeton placed ahead of Florida at the Notre Dame Invitational.
Florida has already defeated FSU, No. 11 Penn State, No. 12 Syracuse, No. 13 Minnesota, No. 16 Illinois, No. 17 Arizona State, No. 21 Providence, No. 22 SMU, No. 24 Notre Dame, No. 25 New Mexico, No. 26 Baylor and No. 27 Ohio State.
This is the fourth straight year the women's team has qualified for the NCAA Championship and the fifth 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 the Florida Gators will be junior Charlotte Browning (Pulborough, England), classmate Laura Garrow (Port Orange, Fla.), senior Stacey Johnson (Lichfield, England), redshirt sophomore Rebecca Lowe (Vaucluse, Australia), sophomore Genevieve LaCaze (Daisy Hill, Australia), senior Julie Northrup (Vero Beach, Fla.) and junior Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.).
Lowe won the individual title at the SEC Championships and at the NCAA South Region meet and was also named the SEC Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year. Browning, Johnson, Lowe, LaCaze and Northrup were awarded All-SEC and All-South Honors. Garrow was awarded All-South honors as well. The previously mentioned runners all set career-best 6K times at the NCAA South Regional and all topped the UF record book for fastest 6K regional time.
The women look to improve on their 17th place finish last season at Nationals and take on defending national champs Washington. LaCaze and Browning placed 75th and 82nd, respectively, in the 2008 national championship running.
The NCAA Championships can be seen live on the Versus Network, as well as on NCAA.com. As soon as results are available, they will be posted on www.twitter.com/GatorZoneXCntry.
