Parker Valby Holds On For Three-Second Victory On Home Course

By Ricky Quintana for DyeStat

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Tennessee swept the team titles and Florida’s Parker Valby and Alabama’s Hillary Cheruiyot won the individual titles on a cool, but muggy morning at the Mark Bostick Golf Course on the University of Florida campus.

Valby, who donned training shoes, led from the start and built her lead to 12 seconds through the 4,560-meter mark on the undulating and turn ridden course. Alabama’s Hilda Olemomoi and Doris Lemngole ran together in second and third place throughout the race before the final circuit. Then they began to gain on Valby and closed the margin to a mere three seconds on Valby’s final time of 17:59.6.

“On the last lap, we were just pushing to make the top three,” said Lemngole, who finished second in 18:02.7.

At SEC’s two weeks ago, Valby pulled away from Lemngole at 4k to win by 33.7 seconds.

“It was a surprise that we were gaining on her,” Lemngole added. 

Valby was not available for comment after the race nor were any quotes released by the Florida sports information department regarding the race.

In the team race, Florida’s Amelia Mazza-Downie did not compete, which left a huge opening for the other teams.

Tennessee was the major benefactor. The Vols who had finished third at SEC Championships two weeks ago behind Florida by 31 points, used their freshman-laden lineup to win with a low of 61 points. Florida never led, but gained on the Volunteers throughout the three-lap course to finish second in 79 points with Ole Miss third with 95 points and Alabama fourth with 98 points.

Tennessee's low stick was once again Ashley Jones, a sophomore, who finished seventh in 18:52.9. The junior led the charge and was shadowed closely by freshman Jillian Candelino, Jessie Secor, Caroline Lyerly and junior Rachel Sutliff. Their top five never slipped out of the top 22 places and their final spread was just 19.9 seconds.

“We’ve been practicing all season to really come together and pace and be together as a pack, “ said Jones. “It all came together today. It was an amazing race. Obviously, it always hurts, but it is so worth it. We’re so excited. Nationals here we come.”

The men's race used different tactics. The Alabama trio of Cheruiyot, Victor Kiprop and Eliud Kipsang planned to take the top three so kept the pace stiff from the gun. The strategy only worked for a mile before Cheruiyot began to fracture the pack and increased his lead 6.4 seconds by 4k. 4k later, he had increased his lead to 27.4 seconds before teammate Kiprop began to reel him in. In the end, Cheruiyot came out with the win in 28:26.8 with Kiprop second in 28:29.9. Tennessee’s Yaseen Abdalla finished third in 28:41.3 and FSU’s David Mullarkey fourth in 28:45.0.

“My race today was really good,” Cheruiyot said. “Our target was for our team to go 1-2-3, but unfortunately we did not. I’m proud of myself and I won the race.”

“Before the race, I told Hillary Cheruiyot to keep it slow and steady and he just laughed,” Abdalla said. “He starts going at 4k and he’s moving. No one was thinking of covering it, so he goes off and makes the race honest and Victor made it honest, so basically I was just reacting. It ended up being top three which was harder than I thought and was eight seconds off my track 10k PR. The pace was just fast. Last year I was second and I ran 45 seconds slower.”

Though the Tide were not able to roll Friday morning, the Volunteers and Seminoles waged a tight battle.  The Volunteers’ white with white top and orange kit were well positioned at the front from the beginning as the Seminoles slowly chipped away at their lead. In the end, the ‘Noles were not able to offset the lead gained by the Volunteers’ top four as they finished with 71 points to the Vols 68 points. Alabama was third with 86 points.

“Carlson is a really good coach and a program builder,” Abdalla said. “We knew we were going to get good sooner or later. The girls are breaking everyone’s expectations and we’re just trying to match up. Both teams are going crazy and it’s a lot of fun.”

For the Noles, two weeks and the 10k distance made a huge difference. At ACC’s on their home course, they had come away with a fifth place finish and 117 points. Friday they moved up and  nearly outlasted the field.

“We were confident coming in. We built off ACCs and regained a bit of momentum,” said David Mullarkey. “Coach Braman said he had been training us for the 10k and not the 8k and I think it showed here today.  Tennessee was a highly ranked team and we gave them a run for their money right to the line and I feel like we showed what we were capable of.”