Florida’s cross country squads embarked on a midseason test Friday afternoon in Madison, Wis., competing in the Top 30-saturated Wisconsin adidas Invitational for the second consecutive season at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, where windy conditions, paired with temperatures in the 50s, composed the race-day atmosphere. Florida’s women landed 19th out of 44 teams in the field (506 points), while UF’s men checked in 32nd of 39 men’s squads (710 points) in the competition.

“This is not the result we were looking for today," Gator distance track and cross country coach Todd Morgan said, "but we’re going to figure out what didn’t go right and we’re going to correct it, starting right now. We have a good team and ultimately I didn’t have them prepared to run today."

“We knew it was going to be a competitive race field, but we didn’t stick to some things we talked about,” Morgan assessed. “In a field as competitive as today's, any problems you have are magnified very quickly. We have two weeks to adjust now before SECs. We have a very fit group of runners and they’re motivated right now for different results.”

Senior Genevieve LaCaze (Daisy Hill, Australia) and sophomore Mark Parrish (Tampa, Fla.) led the women and men, respectively, in the ladies 6K and the men’s 8K, LaCaze turning in a 33rd-place 20:45.5 individual race, while Parrish clocked a 24:29.2 personal-best in the men’s race Friday.

The Gator teams competed amid hundreds of student-athletes Friday in Madison, with a total of 305 collegiate racers in the women’s field and 270 runners in the men’s competition. UF’s women finished ahead of four teams ranked in the USTFCCCA Top 30 poll, while 14 of the 18 finishers ahead of UF are also ranked in the Top 30 national poll. Additionally, a total of 20 men’s teams in the 39-squad field Friday own Top 30 rankings – an indication of the level of competition present on both the men’s and women’s sides at the Wisconsin Badger-hosted meet.

Parrish turned in his career-best mark with the second 8K of the season under his belt, while sophomore Tyler Davidson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) and junior Callie Cooper (St. Augustine, Fla.) both turned in collegiate-best times as well – Davidson with a mark of 25:27.4, while Cooper clocked a 21:34.2 to surpass her previous best set at last year’s adidas Invitational (21:39). LaCaze and the UF women’s squad ran their first 6K of the season after a two-mile race to open the year at the Western Carolina Invitational, followed by two 5Ks at the USF Invite and Mountain Dew Invitational. LaCaze reached her best 6K mark since last season’s NCAA South Regional race (20:06.10).

Behind Parrish’s effort as UF’s first Gator to cross the finish line, sophomore Matt Mizereck (Tallahassee, Fla.), freshman Jimmy Clark (St. Johns, Fla.), Davidson and junior Alex Schanen (Jacksonville Beach, Fla.) rounded out UF’s five scorers and senior Josh Izewski (Doylestown, Pa.) crossed the finish line sixth for the Gators.

Following LaCaze across the finish line for the Orange and Blue was junior transfer Florence N’Getich (Eldama Ravine, Kenya), sophomore Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.), Cooper and sophomore Stephanie Strasser (Fernandina Beach, Fla.) as the Gators’ five scorers, followed by junior Mandy Perkins (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and freshman Grace VanDeGrift (Durant, Fla.), who rounded out UF’s seven adidas Invitational participants.

FLORIDA WOMEN’S 6K FINISHERS (19th overall)

1     33  Genevieve LaCaze      SR          20:46

2     63  Florence N'Getich         JR           21:03

3    109  Cory McGee                     SO         21:20

4    141  Callie Cooper                  JR           21:35

5    160  Stephanie Strasser    SO         21:39

6   (194) Mandy Perkins              JR           21:51

7   (238) Grace VanDeGrift       FR          22:15

FLORIDA MEN’S 8K FINISHERS (32nd overall)

1     47  Mark Parrish                      SO         24:30

2     80  Matt Mizereck                   SO       24:43

3    151  Jimmy Clark                   FR        25:09

4    188  Tyler Davidson            SO       25:28

5    244  Alex Schanen                 SR        26:28

6   (250) Josh Izewski                   SR        26:36

WOMEN’S 6K WINNER

1         Sheila Reid, Villanova, 19:59.4

MEN’S 8K WINNER

1         Lawi Lalang, Arizona, 23:10.8

TOP 10 WOMEN’S TEAM FINISHES

1             Washington, 199

2             Vanderbilt, 211

3             Arizona, 230

4             Villanova, 232

5             Stanford, 256

6             Syracuse, 273

7             California, 331

8             Oregon, 331

T9    Iowa State, 362

T9    Michigan State, 362

19     FLORIDA, 506

TOP 10 MEN’S TEAM FINISHES

1             Wisconsin, 66

2             BYU, 120

3             Stanford, 125

4             Princeton, 227

5             Indiana, 271

6             Texas, 300

7             Minnesota, 309

8             Northern Arizona, 332

9             Providence 343

10        Villanova, 367

32     FLORIDA, 710

The Gators will endure their last training period of the fall campaign – a two-week idle phase – before the championship portion of 2011 begins with the SEC Championship race, hosted this year by Tennessee at Lambert Acres Golf Club in Maryville, Tenn., 30 minutes outside of Knoxville. For more information as SECs approach, stay tuned to www.GatorZone.com/crosscountry, @GatorZoneXCntry and @GZTrackField.