Cally Macumber and Chelsea Oswald became UK’s first All-Americans in more than two decades at Saturday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships. (Chet White, UK Athletics)
It was a big weekend for the Kentucky women’s cross country team. Cally Macumber and Chelsea Oswald became UK’s first All-Americans since 1989 with sixth- and 37th-place finishes, respectively, in Saturday’s NCAA Cross Country Championship. The finishes put an exclamation mark on a strong first season under a new coaching staff, showing that both the women’s cross country and track and field programs have taken steps in the right direction.Sean Cartell from the SEC Digital Network writes about just that in this story:
The history of the Kentucky women’s cross country program is well documented. After all, the 1988 Wildcats, under the direction of former legendary head coach Don Weber, are the only women’s team in the history of the Southeastern Conference to claim an NCAA Cross Country Championship.Still, the Wildcats hadn’t advanced to the NCAA Championships as a team since 2008 and were no longer part of the national conversation when it came to winning titles. Hakon DeVries joined Kentucky in advance of the 2012 season as a part of first-year head coach Edrick Floreal’s new staff, charged with the goal of returning the women’s distance program to prominence.Competing in the championship portion of their schedule over the past month, the Wildcats have proven that they are back among the nation’s elite.Junior Cally Macumber and senior Chelsea Oswald led the charge for Kentucky, finishing 1-3 at the 2012 SEC Championships and then both earning All-America honors at the NCAA Championships this past Saturday at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.“We definitely wanted to come here and really put the cross country team back on the map really loud and clear,” DeVries said Saturday. “I think we did a pretty good job of that with Cally and Chelsea.”
