Oct. 30, 2013

2013 SC Cross Country Progressions

COLUMBIA, S.C. – After a long season, South Carolina begins its championship section of the 2013 season at the SEC Championships, hosted by the University of Florida at Mark Bostic Golf Course on Friday morning. The women’s 6000-meter race is slated for a 9:45 a.m. EDT start.

The Gamecocks come into the league’s event off of an eighth-place showing in the White section of the Indiana State Pre-National Invitational on Oct. 19, a race that saw three Gamecocks (junior Meredith Mill, sophomore Stephanie Berger and freshman Mary Reiser) set new 6K personal bests. The squad returns to the site where four of the 10 competing student-athletes, including freshmen Sarah Falta and Martha McCoy and sophomores Anna Todd and Brandy Wybersky, recorded their best 6K time of the year to date. With the season winding down, assistant track coach in charge of distance and cross country Andrew Allden hopes his squad can put together another weekend of exciting times.

For Mill and fellow co-captain Penny Boswell, it marks the final SEC Cross Country Championships the pair will run. Boswell, a veteran of three previous events, has told her teammates to keep working together and stay with their training partners to help the team accomplish its goal of staying in the top 10 after the Gamecocks finished ninth a year ago. More of Boswell’s comments can be found in the video above this story.

Florida is the defending team champions, winning last year’s event in Nashville, Tenn. The individual champion, Kentucky’s Cally Macumber, also returns to this year’s event.

Full results will be available at GatorZone.com at the conclusion of the event.