The O'Connell Center resembled The Swamp during the men's 4x400-meter relays: You could not hear yourself breathe, if you even had time to breathe, and you definitely could not hear a pin drop.
Fans' cheers engulfed the building and willed UF's primary men's relay team to a first-place finish and an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 3:09.38.
"The relays, especially the 4x400, that's our tradition, we have to win it," senior Carlos Phillips said. "It's our home track, so we can't let somebody come in and take our trophy."
Phillips ran the second leg of the relay and finished the day with another provisional-qualifying time, in the 800-meter run. He took first place with a time of 1:49.86 in the 800.
"Carlos has just gotten a little bit better each and every year," coach Mike Holloway said. "He's a senior leader, and we expect that from him."
Junior sprinter Terrell Wilks, after coming off an average performance against Kentucky, shone in front of the home crowd.
Wilks ran a provisional-qualifying time of 6.25 seconds to capture second place in the 55-meter dash. He also placed fifth in the 200-meter dash, and ran the third leg on UF's fourth-place 4x400 men's relay team.
"For me personally, today was better than last week," Wilks said. "The team overall, I think we did better than last week, too."
Mariam Kevkhishvili, a junior shot-putter, outdid her NCAA automatic-qualifying throw from the Kentucky Invitational.
Kevkhishvili threw the shot 56 feet, over three feet farther than her teammate, Keely Medeiros, who took second place.
"I can do so much better than I did today, I know it's coming" Kevkhishvili said.
Holloway applauded Kevkhishvili's consistency.
"I'm always impressed with Mariam because it's not easy to do that every week" Holloway said. "We are very pleased but not satisfied with where she is. Neither is she satisfied, that's why she's the NCAA defending champion."
UF had solid field performances from Fidela James, who took home second place in women's weight throw, Jenna Utecht, who finished fifth in high jump, and Janicia McFadden, who was 10th in the women's long jump.
Natalie Moser took second place in women's pole vault with the vault at 12 feet, 11.5 inches. Daisy Glasser came in sixth, Lauren Menke took seventh and Alex Black tied for ninth.
In the men's pole vault, at 16 feet, 0.75 inches, Justin Semeyn took third place while Eric Foran and Gray Horn finished fifth and tied for eighth, respectively.
Beau Burroughs threw the shot 56 feet, 3.75 inches to take third place in the shot put and Joshua Postell was fifth in the triple jump.
The track events proved to be more successful on the day for the Gators.
In the 3,000-meter run Charlotte Browning ran a 9:45.32 to take second place, Jacy Kruzel came in fourth, Sara Petrick was fifth and Laura Garrow took sixth.
On the men's side, Jeremy Hall took fourth place in the 55 dash and Michael Anderson was fourth in the men's 3,000-meter run.
"I thought we had a very good day today, solid across the board," Holloway said.
