One of the UF men’s and women’s track and field teams greatest strengths are their depth. They showed that to some of the elite teams in the SEC and ACC this weekend.
The Gators won seven events and landed four automatic and 12 provisional qualifying times in this weekend’s Virginia Tech Invitational. With their distance team home for the weekend, the Gators won events in throws, jumps and sprints.
“Our goal is always to have a well-balanced team so one event doesn’t have all the pressure on them,” head coach Mike Holloway said.
Senior Shara Proctor put in the most impressive performance of the weekend, landing the second-best mark in the women’s long jump in the world this season. Her 6.60m/21-8 was the 12th best collegiate jump of all time.
She also qualified for the NCAA’s in the triple-jump with her 13.88m/45-6.50.
Fellow jumper Christian Taylor posted a 16.26m/53-4.25 in the triple jump to qualify for the NCAA finals after winning the event in the championship meet last season.
Shot putter Mariam Kevkishvili continued her great season, breaking her own school record with a throw of 18.56m/60-10.75. It was her tenth-straight win in an indoor competition and was the third-best in the world this season.
On the men’s side, junior Kemal Mesic put the best collegiate mark in the men’s shot put this season. His 18.99m throw allowed him to finish first in the meet and hold the fourth-best distance in UF history.
A pair of freshmen sprinters for the Gators also put in strong performances. On the women’s side Lannie Whittaker won the 400-meter dash in 54.06. Tony McQuay finished second in the men’s 400 with a time of 46.90.
In his first meet of the season, Jeff Demps qualified first in the preliminaries of the 60 with a 6.64, .04 seconds of an NCAA Championship automatic qualifying time. He ran a 6.68 in the finals to finish third while Chris Rainey improved from a 6.74 in the prelims to a 6.70 in the finals, good for fourth place.
