Parrish helps Gators earn Scholar Team of the Year award

Posted Aug 2, 2012 by Bill Ward

Updated Aug 2, 2012 at 06:35 PM

After earning All-Academic honors from the U.S Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, former Chamberlain High distance running standout Mark Parrish has helped his University of Florida men’s track & field team land the Scholar Team of the Year award for Division I schools for both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

The Gators earned the team award after being the highest-placing team with at least a 3.00 cumulative GPA at the recent NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. Florida swept the men’s NCAA Division I indoor and outdoor titles for the first time in school history this year.

The indoor national title was the Gators’ third-straight crown while the outdoor championship was the team’s ever. Florida is also the first school to sweep Scholar Team of the Year honors since Stanford in 2007. UF has a cumulative team GPA of 3.06, with Parrish, a mechanincal engineering major, playing a major role in that score.

In addition, Parrish and Gator teammates Dan and Derek Wehunt of Sickles High made the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll. Dan Wehunt is majoring in sports management while Derek Wehunt is an anthropology major. All three runners will be juniors this fall.

As a sophomore, Parrish finished third at the SEC cross country finals and 68th at NCAA Division I championships. He also competed in the USA Cross Country Championships, where he took 10th place. After a redshirt indoor track season, Parrish was third at the SEC outdoor meet in the 10,000-meter run in 31 minutes, 5 seconds and just missed qualifying for the NCAA outdoor finals in the 3,000 steeplechase after clocking 8:47.18 at the NCAA regional meet.