The Florida track and field team came to Knoxville, Tenn., on a mission to win championships, decathlete Gray Horn was the first Gator to deliver.
Horn won the decathlon with a personal-record score of 7,652 – the second-best score in school history. Horn set personal-bests in five of the 10 events and became just the ninth person in SEC history to win the event in back-to-back years since 1974.
Horn set the tone for the rest of the meet as the Gators men’s team looks to win their first SEC Outdoor Championship since 1987.
“I got off to a really good start [Thursday] and just got rolling. I got myself going and was able to finish well,” Horn said. “Everything was solid. I didn’t have any clear mess-ups.”
While proud of his personal accomplishments, Horn reemphasized the ultimate goal of winning a team championship.
“The team championship is my top goal. I just wanted to give us a jumpstart, because I know we can win this thing.”
The decathlon win gave the men’s team 10 points and left them in fifth place with 13 total points to start the meet.
Although Horn had a good day for the Gators, the rest of the team had a day similar to the weather.
Messy.
While the meet was delayed for more than an hour due to inclement weather early in the evening, most of the damage had already been done.
Top sprinter Calvin Smith was the only Gator that qualified for the finals in the 200-meter dash. The women’s team didn’t have a single competitor advance to the finals in both the 200-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles.
“We had some mixed emotions today. Clearly we have to do a better job in some of the other areas and I take full responsibility for that,” UF coach Mike Holloway said. “We are going to go back to the hotel, figure out what we did wrong and come out tomorrow and run like we know the Gators are capable of running.”
Holloway did complement the other Gators that picked up points for the teams including freshman distance runner Josh Izewski who ran a personal-record time of 30:08.33 to finish eighth in the men’s 10,000-meter run. In the women’s 10,000-meter run, two Gators scored points for the team as Ali Crabb and Laura Garrow finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the event.
The SEC Outdoor Championships continue Saturday afternoon as the Gators look to rebound from a sloppy first day.
