One of the UF men’s and women’s track and field teams’ greatest strengths are their depth, and they showed that to some of the elite teams in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences this weekend.
The Gators won seven events and landed four automatic and 12 provisional qualifying times in this weekend’s Virginia Tech Invitational.
With its distance team home for the weekend, UF 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 women’s long jump in the world this season. Her 6.67m/21-10.75 was the 12th-best collegiate jump of all time.
She also qualified for the NCAAs 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 Kevkhishvili continued her great season, breaking her own school record with a throw of 18.56m/60-10.75.
It was her 10th-straight win in an indoor competition and was the third-best throw in collegiate history.
On the men’s side, junior Kemal Mesic recorded one of the top six throws in the nation. His 18.99m/62-3.75 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, Lanie 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 off an NCAA Championship automatic qualifying time.
Demps ran a 6.61 in the finals to finish second while football teammate Chris Rainey improved from a 6.74 in the prelims to a 6.70 in the finals, good for fourth place.
