Florida Gators
SEC Championship
Clark, Garcia Nab All-SEC Honors; Three Gators Garner All-Freshman Laurels at SEC Championship
Friday, October 30, 2015 | Cross Country
*Men's Results | Women's Results*
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – While the Florida men's and women's cross country teams only managed seventh-place finishes, five Gators turned in standout performances—near-historic outings, in some cases—amid rainy conditions at the 2015 SEC Championship.
Pacing the men, redshirt senior Jimmy Clark closed strong, passing a runner in the last 100 meters to take seventh place and secure the final first-team All-SEC spot. The honor was the third of Clark's remarkably consistent career at UF, making him just the seventh SEC runner and the only Gator to earn three first-team All-SEC accolades since the conference began recognizing first-team and second-team awards in 2002.
Clark's personal-best time of 23:42.6 tied Steve Zieminski for the fourth-fastest 8k in program history as well.
Fellow redshirt senior Eddie Garcia clocked a personal-best 8k time of 23:49.5—which marks the 10th-best 8k in school history—to finish 11th overall. Garcia was named second-team All-SEC for the second time in his career.
One of the other four UF men to run a personal-best 8k time was true freshman Jack Guyton, who finished fifth among freshmen runners at the meet to collect the program's eighth SEC All-Freshman Team plaudit.
For the women, Maria Larsen once again led the charge, crossing 15th overall and earning an SEC All-Freshman Team laurel. Her personal-best 6k time of 20:24.8 was the fastest by a UF freshman at the SEC Championship since 2000. It was also the 10th-fastest 6k at any race and the fourth-fastest 6k at an SEC Championship in school history.
Junior Taylor Tubbs was the second Gator to finish, placing 18th overall. Elisabeth Bergh was not far behind, posting a 21st-place finish to earn the last spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
NUMBERS OF NOTE
· Jimmy Clark joins Mark Parrish as the only other Gator since 1998 with three top-10 finishes at the SEC Championship.
· Clark's top-10 finish was his third of the season and the 13th of his collegiate career, tying Rob Evans for the ninth-most in program history.
· Eddie Garcia became the 11th Gator since 1998 with multiple top-15 finishes at the SEC Championship.
· Clark's and Garcia's times were tied for the second- and sixth-fastest 8k times, respectively, by a Gator in an SEC Championship race
· With Jack Guyton's SEC All-Freshman Team laurel, the Gator men have placed a runner on the SEC All-Freshman Team each of the past six years.
· Maria Larsen tied Jacy Kruzel (2005) and Louise Moerch (2002) for the third-highest finish by a Gator freshman at the SEC Championship since 2000.
· Larsen and Elisabeth Bergh are the fourth and fifth UF women to earn SEC All-Freshman Team honors in school history, and it marked just the second time the Gators had two such runners in one year.
· Larsen and Bergh became the second UF freshman duo since 2000 to crack the top 25 at the SEC Championship. Adding Maddox Patterson to the mix, they were the fourth trio of Gator freshmen to all finish 55th or higher at the SEC Championship during that stretch.
RESULTS
| Gator Men – 8k |
| |
| Place (Pts) | Runner | Time |
| 7. (7) | Jimmy Clark | 23:42.6* |
| 11. (11) | Eddie Garcia | 23:49.5* |
| 49. (48) | Mac Reynolds | 24:52.1* |
| 52. (51) | Jack Guyton | 24:54.7* |
| 55. (53) | Charles Chambers | 24:57.8* |
| 62. (58) | Magnus Pettersen | 25:19.8 |
| 69. (64) | Carlos Miranda | 25:13.0 |
| 76. (-) | Jack Beitter | 25:32.3 |
| 83. (-) | Seamus Love | 25:40.2 |
| 90. (-) | Mac Macoy | 25:50.6* |
| Men's Top Five Teams |
| |
| Place | Team | Points |
| 1. | No. 8 Arkansas | 25 |
| 2. | Texas A&M | 98 |
| 3. | Ole Miss | 122 |
| 4. | Kentucky | 129 |
| 5. | Georgia | 142 |
| 7. | Florida | 170 |
| Gator Women – 6k | ||
| Place (Pts) | Runner | Time |
| 15. (15) | Maria Larsen | 20:24.8* |
| 18. (18) | Taylor Tubbs | 20:27.0 |
| 21. (21) | Elisabeth Bergh | 20:32.9* |
| 55. (50) | Maddox Patterson | 21:28.0* |
| 95. (79) | Becky Greene | 22:07.4 |
| 108. (87) | Caitlin McQuilkin-Bell | 22:33.8 |
| 123. (94) | Delaney Tiernan | 23:11.9 |
| Women's Top Five Teams | ||
| Place | Team | Points |
| 1. | No. 4 Arkansas | 38 |
| 2. | No. 13 Mississippi State | 95 |
| 3. | No. 26 Vanderbilt | 112 |
| 4. | Alabama | 143 |
| 5. | Ole Miss | 147 |
| 7. | Florida | 183 |
* - denotes collegiate personal best
ALL-SEC HONOREES
Jimmy Clark – Men's First-Team All-SEC
Eddie Garcia – Men's Second-Team All-SEC
Jack Guyton – Men's All-SEC Freshman Team
Maria Larsen – Women's All-SEC Freshman Team
Elisabeth Bergh – Women's All-SEC Freshman Team
COURSE QUOTES
Florida cross country assistant coach Paul Spangler on the men's performance: “Jimmy (Clark) and Eddie (Garcia) did a solid job up front. I was proud of those guys. For us to be successful as a team, we needed production from our No. 3, 4 and 5 spots. We just didn't have that today.
Spangler on the women's performance: “Maria (Larsen) did a good job up front. Taylor Tubbs and Elisabeth Bergh, I thought they ran really, really well. Maddox Patterson … she did a solid job today. Injuries just really affected us this year on the women's side. The team was in pretty good position through our third and fourth runners, but we needed five. That's where we just didn't have the production today.”
Spangler on Maria Larsen's performance and what's next for the Gators: “She mixed it up there with the best girls in the country. I'm proud of her. Now we've got two weeks to get ready for regionals.
Jimmy Clark on his three first-team All-SEC accolades and top-10 finishes at the SEC Championship: “It's just a testament to Coach Spangler getting me to be consistent. Being able to come in and have success from the beginning (of my career) is something that's very important. I'm just happy to be able to close it out with one more. Any time you can put your name up there with a guy like Mark Parrish, it means a lot. It's really cool.
UP NEXT
Florida now has two weeks to prepare for the NCAA South Regional Championship, which will be held on Friday, Nov. 13 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Gator men were ranked No. 3, while the women were ranked No. 7 in the last edition of the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings. The top two teams and top four runners from non-qualifying teams will automatically advance to the NCAA Championship.
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