Gators Start Strong at North Florida

Friday, September 7

Jacksonville, FL

6 PM

Florida Gators

UNF Invitational

The Women logged 1-2-3-4 for the Gators as they took the title at the UNF Invite.

Gators Start Strong at North Florida

Friday, September 7, 2018 | Cross Country

By: Corinne Simpson

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida women's cross country team collected a season-opening victory while the men took silver at the UNF Invite, Friday (Sept. 7) night.

On the women's side, all five of UF's counted scorers placed inside the top 10, included a sweep of the top-four finishers.

Junior Jessica Pascoe led the way with the top time for the Gators while redshirt junior Elisabeth Bergh took runner-up and seniors Caitlin McQuilkin-Bell and Morgan Hull followed right behind in third and fourth. Freshmen Imogen Barrett rounded out the top five with a seventh-place finish in her Gators debut.

While the men's competition was closer, Florida earned runner-up behind top-15 finishes from all five scoring runners. The men finished second behind the host, North Florida.

Redshirt freshman Nick Deal clocked the fastest time for the Gators in his collegiate debut and placed fifth. Redshirt sophomore Colin Schaefer picked up a top-10 finish at nine. Redshirt junior Jack Guyton, redshirt sophomore Jesse Millson and redshirt junior Jack Rogers logged an 11-12-13 finish.

Gators Women- 3k

Place	Runner	Time
1	Jessica Pascoe	9:36.1 (PR)
2	Elisabeth Bergh	10:04.5
3	Caitlin McQuilkin-Bell	10:09.5
4	Morgan Hull	10:11.4
7	Imogen Barrett	10:38.9
12	Grace Blair	10:55.2
14	Sophie Ebihara	11:00.7
20	Abbie Harrelson	11:16.8
21	Autumn Bartlett	11:19.1
22	Maggie Parrish	11:24.5
27	Madison Morse	11:39.8
35	Delaney Tiernan	11:49.2

Gators Men- 5k

Place	Runner	Time
5	Nick Deal	15:35.5
9	Colin Schaefer	15:44.3
11	Jack Guyton	15:49.3
12	Jesse Millson	15:53.0 (PR)
13	Jack Rogers	15:57.3 (PR)
18	Bryce Statham	16:16.0 (PR)
19	Marshall Dillon	16:16.3
44	Dominic Williams	17:48.8

Thoughts on the Race from Assistant Coach Chris Solinsky:

"I thought the women did a really good job of establishing position early, working together mid race and competing hard all the way through. I saw some really encouraging things from all the ladies. We are light years' ahead of where we were last year and that's a reflection of a lot of hard work. We still have a lot of areas to work on, but this was a great first race."
"The men did a good job of getting off the line and reacting to the race. They did a great job of working the middle of the race to pull ourselves closer to the front. We left three of our top seven home to put in some more work, so we only get stronger. We are in a good spot moving forward."
"Today's objective was to race hard with a lot of training fatigue and see how we responded to adversity when faced with it. Both the men and the women came off the summer quite well and now we go back to work."

UNF Meet Information:

Meet Results
Venue: UNF Golf Complex at the Hayt Learning Center (University of North Florida)
Competing Teams: Daytona State College, Edward Waters, Florida Gateway College, Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ), Jacksonville, North Florida, Seminole Community College, South Florida, St. Thomas, Tallahassee Community College, UNF Running Club

Up Next:

Florida will compete again in two weeks, when it hosts the Mountain Dew Invitational at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville. Race day is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22.

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