Cross Country Travels to Tallahassee for Pre-Nationals

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The No. 27 University of Kentucky women’s cross country team and the men’s cross country team will travel to Tallahassee, Florida to compete in the Florida State University Pre-Nationals Meet on Friday, October 15 for their fourth and final meet of the regular season. 

The men’s 8K Garnet race will start at 8 a.m., followed by the women’s 6K Garnet race at 8:35 a.m. UKXC will also have runners in the men’s and women’s open races of the same distances, beginning at 9:10 and 9:45 a.m., respectively. 

The Wildcats are set to compete against 75 total teams in the Garnet races, 39 for the men and 36 for the women. In the open races they will run against 49 additional teams, 22 men’s teams and 25 women’s teams, plus all left-over runners from teams in the Garnet races. 

The women’s team is currently ranked No. 27 nationally by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Last week’s ranking was the first to include UKXC in the top 30 in modern program history after an eighth-place team finish in South Bend. 

Tori Herman, Jenna Gearing, Perri Bockrath, Kaitlyn Lacy and Rachel Boice are some notable runners competing on the women’s side, accompanied by Ethan Kern, Matt Duvall, Dylan Allen, Harper Moore and Aaron Withrow for the men.

In total, the Wildcats will race eight runners in each of the Garnet races, three in the men’s open race and five in the women’s open race.

Herman leads the UKXC women coming into pre-nationals after two impressive 5K performances this season. The 2020 SEC All-Freshman team member finished 21st in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational women’s 5K following a win at the Commodore Classic in the women’s 5K. 

Kern, a member of the 2020 SEC All-Freshman Team, has led Kentucky’s male runners in the two meets he has competed in this season. In South Bend, Kern finished 46th (24:28.1) in the men’s five mile and won the Missouri Opener 6K (17:36.9). 

Gearing, the 2020 SEC Cross Country Silver Medalist, made her 2021 season debut two weeks ago in South Bend, finishing with an impressive time of 17:04.7 and 53rd place finish. Preceding Gearing was Bockrath, coming in 52nd place with a 17:04.6 run. Bockrath finished close behind Herman at the Commodore Classic with a fourth-place finish and led the team in the Missouri Opener. 

Rounding out the top five for the women are Lacy and Boice, both of whom finished in the top 100 (60th, 93rd) at Notre Dame. 

Duvall is also having a standout season for the men, finishing immediately behind Kern at Notre Dame with a 47th-place finish (24:29.7) and at Missouri with a third-place finish (17:47.2). 

Jake Allen finished close behind Kern and Duvall at Notre Dame in 62nd (24:40.7) place and did the same at the Missouri Opener, running for 6th place in the 6K (17:50.5) 

Moore, rounding out the top 100 at the Joe Piane Invitational, finished 86th (24:54.3). 

Dylan Allen last competed at the Commodore Classic and ran for 17th place (25:16.9) in the men’s 8K. 

Next up for UKXC is SEC Championships at University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri on October 29. 

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