Friday was a busy night for UF’s No. 1 men and No. 4 women’s track and field teams, who posted six top-16 Division I times at both the Tyson Invitational and the Iowa State Classic.
Three of those times were good enough for the world indoor top 20. In addition, the Gators logged six marks on Florida’s all-time indoor top 10.
Starting off the day for the men at the Tyson Invitational was Nick Uruburu, who finished sixth in the 400-meter competition. In the 60-meter hurdles prelims, Moriel Pitt recorded a season-best time of 8.19, but Yanick Hart was the only Gator to advance in the event.
Hart set a personal-record time of 7.77 seconds in the semifinal which is the No. 5-ranked time in UF’s all-time top 10, and finished fourth in the finals.
“It’s really an ecstatic feeling, knowing that there have been some struggles since my freshman year,” Hart said in a release. “That brings forth a really great feeling.
"I might not have done as well as I wanted to in the final, because I was overly competitive (in the semifinals). But we’ll get it right for SECs and, hopefully, nationals.”
Shayla Sanders and Ryan Clark also had a strong showing Friday. Sanders won the 60-meter dash in the finals with a time of 7.22, and Clark (6.65) took 4th in the 60-meter dash finals and ran the No. 9-ranked time on UF's all-time top 10 in the semifinals with a time of 6.64.
“Watching Shayla (Sanders) continue to have great runs was big,” said coach Mike Holloway in a release. “She fell asleep a little bit in the final, but part of being a great sprinter is making mistakes and still being able to win; she was able to do that. Ryan Clark had a nice breakthrough tonight in the 60 (meters). We’ve been looking for that.”
In the women’s 400-meter dash, senior Kyra Jefferson (52.19), Robin Reynolds (52.27), and Claudia Francis (52.39) finished in second, third and fourth place, respectively. Their times were also good enough for the top three, four and five times, respectively, on the NCAA Division I Indoor list.
AJ McFarland who had a strong showing last weekend at the Virginia Tech Elite, moved up to No. 5 on Florida's all-time indoor top 10 with this weight throw of 19.32 meters.
At the Iowa State Classic, Jimmy Clark finished in 12th place and ran the No. 2-ranked time on UF’s Indoor Top 10 of 13:53.34 in the 5K, while Eddie Garcia finished in 23rd place and ran the No. 6 time of 14.06.17. Charles Chambers also shattered his 5,000-meter personal record by 12.80 seconds with a time of 14:29.07.
“When you think about what happened at Iowa State, with Jimmy (Clark) and Eddie (Garcia) running personal bests, we got a lot of good things done this weekend,” Holloway said in a release. “When you go back and look at the overall day, we had a monstrous day. Really good job by a lot of people.”
Saturday’s competition for the Gators at the Tyson Invitational begins at 1p.m. with Ebony Luster in the Triple Jump competition, and at 11:50 am at the Iowa State Classic with Jack Beitter and Carlos Miranda in the mile.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
UF coach Mike Holloway smiles during the 2015 Florida Relays at James G. Pressly Stadium.
