In just his first season at the helm of the cross country program, Florida assistant track and cross country coach Paul Spangler picked up SEC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year honors, while seven Gator runners racked up All-SEC accolades, announced by the league office Friday.
Spangler guided the Florida women’s squad to the 2012 SEC Championship Oct. 26 in Nashville, the program’s third title in the last four years and sixth overall in UF history. UF’s six cross country SEC titles are the second-most for a conference team in league history.
For Spangler, the coaching award marks his first at Florida and the second such award in his coaching career after picking up 2009 Big South Conference Women’s Coach of the Year honors while at the Virginia Military Institute. Spangler became the first UF cross country coach to lead a Gator squad to the SEC title in his first season and his coaching accolade was Florida’s sixth ever.
Along with the women’s SEC Championship and fifth consecutive top-three finish, Florida’s men’s squad finished fifth overall for the Gators’ 16th straight top-five finish at the conference championship.
Six Gators ran lifetime best 6K marks and all five scorers turned in top-25 finishes, three in the top 15, to lead the women to the 2012 SEC Title at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, including second-place finisher Florence Ngetich (Eldama Ravine, Kenya), who clocked in at 20:27.41 for the sixth-fastest time in Florida history as the Gators’ highest finisher in the women’s field of 124 athletes.
Ngetich picked up All-SEC First Team honors after being a second-team pick last season, while junior transfer Agata Strausa (Riga, Latvia) picked up her first cross country All-SEC honors for her sixth-place, career-best finish. Senior Callie Cooper (St. Augustine, Fla.) checked a career-long goal off her list with All-SEC Second Team accolades to cap off a successful four-year tenure donning the Orange and Blue.
On the men’s side, junior Mark Parrish (Tampa, Fla.) made it two-consecutive years with All-SEC First Team honors after turning in a seventh-place finish at SECs last week to score first for the fifth-place Gators.
In addition to UF’s upperclassmen, a trio of first-year Florida runners garnered SEC All-Freshman Team accolades, including women’s squad members Shelby Davidson (Melbourne, Fla.) and Julie Macedo (Wilmington, Del.), as two of the top seven freshman runners to cross the finish line in the women’s field at the league championship. On the men’s side, redshirt freshman Phil Duncan (Orlando, Fla.) was the sixth freshman runner to finish, reeling in All-Freshman honors to cap off a career-best 8K race at the meet.
The Gators will next head to Tallahassee, Fla., Nov. 9 for the 2012 NCAA South Region Championships, where the top two team finishers on both the men’s and women’s sides will earn automatic bids to the 2012 NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky. Any individual and team at-large bids will be announced by the NCAA shortly after all regional competition.
2012 SEC Women’s Postseason Awards
Women’s Coach of the Year: Paul Spangler, Florida
Women’s Runner of the Year: Cally Macumber, Kentucky
Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year: Hannah Jumper, Vanderbilt
Women’s All-SEC First Team
Cally Macumber, Kentucky
Florence Ngetich, Florida
Chelsea Oswald, Kentucky
Carly Hamilton, Georgia
Grace Heymsfield, Arkansas
Agata Strausa, Florida
Hannah Jumper, Vanderbilt
Women’s All-SEC Second Team
Kristen Findley, Vanderbilt
Katie Breathitt, Ole Miss
Andrina Schlaepfer, Arkansas
Diane Robison, Arkansas
Laura Carleton, LSU
Kayla Lampe, South Carolina
Callie Cooper, Florida
Women’s SEC All-Freshman Team
Hannah Jumper, Vanderbilt
Andrina Schlaepfer, Arkansas
Kayla Lampe, South Carolina
Katelyn Greenleaf, Alabama
Shelby Davidson, Florida
Alexis Panisse, Tennessee
Julie Macedo, Florida
2012 SEC Men’s Postseason Awards
Men’s Coach of the Year: Chris Bucknam, Arkansas
Men’s Runner of the Year: Henry Lelei, Texas A&M
Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year: Cale Wallace, Arkansas
Men’s All-SEC First Team
Henry Lelei, Texas A&M
Solomon Haile, Arkansas
Eric Fernandez, Arkansas
Kemoy Campbell, Arkansas
Matt Cleaver, Georgia
Peter Okwera, Tennessee
Mark Parrish, Florida
Men’s All-SEC Second Team
Hayden Legg, Missouri
Max Storms, Missouri
Luis Orta, Kentucky
Bryant Blahnik, Missouri
Layne Nixon, Arkansas
Brandon Lord, Georgia
Cale Wallace, Arkansas
Men’s SEC All-Freshman Team
Cale Wallace, Arkansas
Joe McKenna, Missouri
Evan Chiplock, Missouri
Sid Vaughn, Georgia
Tyler Schneider, Missouri
Phil Duncan, Florida
Steven Spevacek, Georgia
Courtesy of UF Communications