While Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets may have been hard to come by, the Gators track and field teams collected their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships as easy as stealing candy from a baby.
The Gators enjoyed a successful weekend in Greensboro, N.C., at the NCAA Preliminary Round, advancing 16 athletes and qualifying for 21 spots.
The Gators will head to Eugene, Ore., with a strong contingent on a mission to bring more championships back to Gainesville.
“We talked before we got here about doing our job at this meet and getting as many of our scorers through to the NCAA meet as possible,” UF coach Mike Holloway said. “I thought we did a great job this weekend.”
The NCAA Outdoor Championships take place June 9-12 and all of the Gators’ top athletes will have a chance to win a title.
The No. 1 ranked men’s team had nine Gators qualify for seven events.
Christian Taylor, the Southeastern Conference Field Athlete of the Year, continued his field dominance and advanced in both the long jump and triple jump. Teammate Omar Craddock also qualified in the triple jump.
Four of the fastest men’s sprinters in the country – Jeff Demps, Terrell Wilks, Calvin Smith and Tony McQuay – all advanced to Eugene.
Demps advanced in the 100-meter dash, Wilks qualified for both the 100- and 200-meter dash while Smith and McQuay will each represent Florida in the 400-meter dash.
Both of Florida’s top-ranked relay teams also advanced to the championships.
“A lot of times when you come in as the favorite, or you are expected to do certain things, you have a tendency to get complacent,” Holloway said. “I thought everybody did a wonderful job and that was a byproduct of our focus.”
The defending NCAA Champion 4x100-meter relay team, anchored by Demps, notched the top qualifying time with a season-best time of 38.81. The 4x400-meter relay team, which entered the meet with the fastest time in the world so far this season, also clinched a spot in the finals.
The men’s team also saw its leading shot putter, Kemal Mesic, and decathlete Gray Horn qualify for the finals.
The one surprise on the men’s side was freshman Josh Izewski, who entered the East Preliminaries as the 48th and final qualifier, but he placed 12th in the men’s 10,000-meter run to claim the final spot that advanced to Eugene.
The No. 6 ranked women’s team also had an excellent meet.
It had seven athletes qualify for six events.
Shot putters Mariam Kevkhishvili, Keely Medeiros and Fidela James all punched their tickets to Eugene.
Charlotte Browning, the top women’s 1,500-meter runner in the SEC, advanced to Eugene while Julie Northrup, the second-fastest women’s steeplechase athlete in school history, also qualified for the finals.
The East Preliminaries top women’s javelin thrower, Evelien Dekkers, advanced to the championships by placing first in her event.
The SEC’s top women’s field athlete Shara Proctor matched her Gators men’s counterpart, Taylor, also advancing to Eugene in the long jump and triple jump.
“The things we want to do in two weeks started Thursday,” Holloway said. “If we hadn’t done our jobs this weekend, we wouldn’t be able to score points in two weeks.”
