After the Gators came up achingly short of their first NCAA Outdoor Championship on Saturday, UF jumper Christian Taylor tried to find a lesson in a meet filled with missed chances.
For the third consecutive year, Florida finished behind national champion Texas A&M by two points or less. The No. 3 Gators’ third-place finish in Des Moines, Iowa, ended a chance to sweep both NCAA track titles, after winning the indoor meet in March.
“It teaches us to take every race like it’s our last, because you know it could be.” Taylor said.
Though the junior claimed an individual title with a Herculean leap of 17.80m/58-4.75 (+2.3) in the triple jump — the longest in collegiate history — he looked back at his own missed chances to score points in the long jump and relays as learning experiences going forward.
“Personally, if I took the long jump like [the triple jump] and jumped the first jump like it was my last, maybe I would’ve gotten to the finals,” Taylor said. “It’s really about making the most of every opportunity you have because next year or even tomorrow is not promised.”
Earlier on the final day of competition, Florida also squandered a chance at major points in the 4x100-meter relay when senior Terrell Wilks and junior Jeff Demps fumbled the baton exchange.
Texas A&M took second and eight points in the event, while UF was tagged with a DNF.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened, they made a mistake,” UF coach Mike Holloway said.
“I’m not going to drag them through the mud. At the end of the day, I’m going to take responsibility as a coach and that’s my job.”
The mistake capped off a nightmare meet for Demps, who was unable to qualify for Friday’s finals of the 100-meter dash after he was stricken with a leg cramp mid-stride.
Despite missing several scoring opportunities, Florida was in second before the final event of the meet and needed to finish at least fifth in the 4x400-meter relay — and prevent top-ranked Texas A&M from winning — to take home UF’s first outdoor title.
But the Aggies exploded out of the gates to easily win the relay by nearly five seconds over the Gators’ sixth-place squad of Taylor, Jovon Toppin, Sean Obinwa and Tony McQuay.
“Things like this, it makes you hungry and wanting to better yourself as a person and also as a team so you don’t get into these situations,” Taylor said.
The women’s team also fell short of its expectations with a 34th-place finish overall.
After scoring in just two events, Florida’s lone bright spot came from distance runner Genevieve LaCaze, who broke her own school record in the steeplechase for the third consecutive meet.
With a clocked time of 9:59.44, the junior’s final steeplechase of the season was over 25 seconds faster than her top effort heading into the 2011 season.
“If I’m giving our women a grade, I’m giving them an A+,” Holloway said. “We’re young and all of those girls will be back next year. …What they did is they went out there and competed their tails off like we asked them to do, and I think they did a great job.”
