BATON ROUGE, La. ? The Kentucky men?s and women?s cross country squads fared well against stiff competition at the Southeastern Conference Championships Saturday as the Wildcat women finished sixth and the men finished in seventh place at Highland Road Park in Baton Rouge, La.
Arkansas swept the event claiming both the men?s and women?s titles. The Lady Razorbacks took the women?s 6K race with the second-lowest point total in SEC history at 17. Arkansas’ score of 17 points was 47 ahead of second-place Georgia (64) while three-time defending champion Tennessee (66) finished third. Kentucky was sixth with a score of 172, just 10 points behind fifth-place Mississippi State. On the men?s side, Arkansas finished the 8K race with a team point total of 21. Florida was second with 73 points and the Alabama Crimson Tide rounded out the top three with 75 points. UK was seventh with a score of 208.
?This was the toughest competition we have seen all year,? said Pat Tyson, assistant coach for distance and cross country. ?I think our runners got good experience today competing against some deep, talented SEC squads. Our team kept fighting and didn?t fold today, but we are still not satisfied. We are looking forward to maximizing our potential in two weeks at NCAA Regionals, and this race really gave us a taste of what the competition is like at a championship event.?
Sophomore Taylor Miller led the way for the Kentucky women for the third time this season. Miller finished 24th overall with a time of 21:09, while fellow sophomore Andrea Halasek was 37th overall with a 21:42. The next three Kentucky runners finished within three seconds of each other with senior Georganne Way finishing 43rd (21:52), senior Emily King (21:53) 44th and junior Lavera Morris finishing 45th (21:55). Other finishers for the Kentucky women included junior Liliane Sparkes (53rd, 22:18), and freshmen Claire Laverty (75th, 23:11) and Lindsay Petri (77th, 23:24).
?It was a very competitive field on the women?s side and we were within 10 points of a top-five finish,? Tyson said. ?We?re not satisfied, but we are realistic that we finished about where we were predicted to finish. We had an average day and the positions were really set from the get-go. I know they are very eager to come back in two weeks at regionals.?
Senior John Richardson led the Kentucky men in 17th place with a time of 24:47, while junior Andre? Silva was the squad?s No. 2 runner in 45th place with a time of 25:49. Sophomore Ryan Finn posted his best team finish for the Wildcats with a 50th place overall finish and a time of 26:04. Other finishers for the UK men included junior John Thompson (54th, 26:08), junior Zach Wilder (57th, 26:14), sophomore Bruce Hordusky (63rd, 26:30), sophomore Chris Long (75th, 26:53) and junior Stephan Smith (83rd, 27:28).
?The men were predicted eighth and were able to jump a spot to seventh place,? Tyson said. ?We showed we could be very competitive. Ryan Finn did a good job with his best team finish. He is a very talented and capable young man. The men tried hard to improve their position, but this was a classic SEC meet ? people just weren?t falling back.?
Kentucky returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 11, when it travels to Louisville, Ky., to compete in the NCAA Southeast Regional at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park.
For all of the latest information on Kentucky Cross Country, please log on to ukathletics.com.
