Honoring their seniors before the season opener would be considered odd in most sports, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary for track and field.
In a sport where a team has only one or two home dates per year, this weekend’s Florida Relays may have been the only opportunity to see a full home crowd.
“It was great being in front of friends and family. You can’t beat that feeling,” UF coach Mike Holloway said. “Up in the stands, there’s a great crowd up there, so it was a great experience for us.”
The Gators picked up four event victories, saw senior Jeremy Postin set a UF record and put up plenty of other personal-best times and marks at Percy Beard Track in Pressly Stadium over the weekend.
“It’s nice to know The Gator Nation supports us,” junior Gray Horn said.
“It’s nice not having to travel,” added Postin, whose hammer throw of 65.09m/213-6 on Friday broke his own school record.
Florida’s first home date of the season held extra meaning for junior Christian Taylor.
In addition to winning the men’s 400m dash, Taylor was awarded the William R. Richardson Memorial Track Scholarship, given to the top junior track and field athlete, and his parents were in the crowd to witness his successful weekend.
“(My parents) actually haven’t seen me run since my senior year in high school, so it was really big to get this win with my second-best time,” Taylor said.
Joining Taylor as individual winners this weekend were junior Jeff Demps (100m sprint) and freshman Cory McGee (800m run).
Demps won his event in 10.07 seconds, improving on his previous personal-best mark at the Florida Relays of 10.11 seconds, which he set in 2010.
As for McGee, the accomplishments keep coming for the two-time Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week Award winner.
She recorded her first outdoor victory by winning the 800m run and also anchored the 1600m sprint medley relay that secured UF’s only team victory.
Although Holloway expressed disappointment in the women’s team’s performance following an unsatisfying end to the indoor season, it has picked up four event victories in the outdoor season’s first three meets.
“I’m excited about the women’s team as a whole,” Holloway said. “What we did indoors is not indicative of what kind of team we are.”
The No. 1 Florida men had a disappointing second day, failing to capture two events they won at last season’s Florida Relays.
The 4x100 relay saw the Gators finish third (38.91 seconds) behind Florida State and winner Pure Athletics.
A pro team from Pure Athletics set a new Florida Relays record with its winning time, finishing the race in 38.74 seconds.
UF was unable to finish the 4x200 relay because sophomore Tony McQuay fell during his leg of the run and was too injured to continue.
“Tony’s been battling injuries all year long, and they just keep popping up,” Holloway said. “Tony’s been blessed with a lot of great God-given talent, so we’ll get him fixed up. And we’ve got six weeks to get him ready for conference, so that’s our starting point.”
While the weekend didn’t produce a lot of victories and had its fair share of disappointments, Holloway still saw it as a point to build on moving forward.
“There are some things that we’re very good at it, things we’re not so good at and things we have to get a lot better at,” Holloway said. “What we’re going to do is sit down as a staff, talk about it, look at it, get together on Monday and get back to work.”
