Mariam Kevkhishvili made history Saturday at the NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships.
Kevkhishvili captured the national title in the shot put with a school-record throw of 17.83 meters. It was the first national championship of her career and the first ever in the event for Gators.
The sophomore's toss moved her past Olympian and two-time All-American Kim Barrett on UF's all-time indoor list.
Kevkhishvili earned the second straight indoor All-American honor of her career and the third overall.
Her win marked the first individual national title for the UF track and field program since 2005.
In their first year as a combined program, the Gators were able to capture eighth-place finishes on both the men's and women's sides and produced 11 All-Americans at the national meet.
"I'm very pleased with the way that the team competed," UF coach Mike Holloway said. "Coming into the weekend, we expected to be in the top-10 on both sides, and we were able to do that."
History was also made on the men's side, as sophomore Mike Morrison fought his way to a third-place finish in the heptathlon. Morrison's score of 5,792 points, which broke his own school record in the event, catapulted him to All-American honors Saturday.
The sophomore is the first UF multi-event athlete in school history to earn All-American status and the first to score in a national meet since Heidi Hertz won the won the pentathlon at the 1976 AIAW Championships.
"Mike Morrison did a great job for us on the men's side," Holloway said. "I'm very proud of him."
Calvin Smith became the third UF sophomore to claim All-American status Saturday. The award is the second in as many years for Smith.
The sophomore finished fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.44 seconds and was able to improve on his seventh-place finish in the event last year.
Lakecia Ealey was the lone female sprinter to compete Saturday night. The senior from Albany, Ga. took fourth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.23 seconds and broke her own school record in the process.
Ealey was able to fulfill her season-long goal of earning All-American honors in an individual event. It was the fourth of the senior's career.
The Men's 4x400-meter relay team failed to live up to expectations Saturday.
Ranked No.1 in the nation heading into the meet, the Gators were favored to win the event, but their time of 3:07.34 seconds was only good enough for fifth place.
Despite the poor performance by the relay team, Holloway believes that the men's team bounced back from their lackluster showing at the Southeastern Conference Championship.
"We are still not where we want to be," Holloway said. "We still have some things that we need to improve on, but we are definitely moving in the right direction."
