University of Kentucky?s men?s and women?s cross country teams finished fifth and fourth, respectively at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. The Cats were led by sophomores Allison Grace and John Richardson. Grace crossed the finish line with a time of 14:33 in 17th place and Richardson recorded a time of 12:29 to finish 20th.
?I was pretty pleased overall, at different stages of both races people were really moving well. There were a lot of good runners in the field,? UK head coach Don Weber said.
The women faired well against nationally ranked Stanford and beat the only other SEC representation in the meet, Vanderbilt. Leah Kerstetter ran a 14:54 finishing 31st and second for Kentucky. Freshman Colleen Krout crossed the finish line just behind Kerstetter with a time of 14:54 for 31st place. Seniors Candace Leep (35) and Beth Heimann (40) had times of 15:01 and 15:08, respectively to complete the top five for Kentucky. Stanford took the women?s team title with 21 points led by individual champion Sara Bei in a time of 13:16.
?The women are coming around. It was a good field and Allison competed well against a national caliber front in that race. We had a number of other women close to her, running off of her and that is encouraging,? said Weber.
Other finishers for Kentucky included freshmen Liliane Sparkes 15:10 (42), Lavera Morris 15:26 and Andrea Brown 15:37. Sophomore Georganne Way ran a time of 15:31.
The men finished well in the field of 120 runners. Freshmen Andre Silva and Chris Long ran good races for the Cats. Silva finished second for Kentucky in 28th place with a time of 12:36 and Long recorded a 12:58 for 41st. Juniors Chris Millisor ran 12:40 (30) finishing third for Kentucky and Andrew Thompson had a time of 12:50 (36).
?I was pleased that we got out and ran as well as we did in the beginning. We got out pretty well as a team and we just have to spend more time becoming better conditioned so that more people can stay there with John and Andre,? said Weber.
Cats also running were freshman Stephan Smith 13:05 (45), Kris Landers 13:10 (52), Jonathan Thomas 13:24 (72) and rounding out the field for Kentucky, sophomore Tom Byers 13:44 (88).
Women?s Team Results 4k (top 5) 1. Stanford 2. SMU 3. UCLA 4. Kentucky 5. Vanderbilt
Men?s Team Results 4k (top 5) 1. Oregon 2. Stanford 3. UCLA 4. Chico State 5. Kentucky
