It is finally Omar Craddock's time to shine.
Competing with former All-American teammates Christian Taylor and Will Claye since arriving at UF two years ago, Craddock has now become Florida's top returning jumper.
His work with Taylor and Claye paid off as Craddock automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships by recording a 16.34m/53-7.50 mark in the triple jump at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet on Feb. 3-4.
While Craddock placed third in the event, he was highest ranked attached competitor.
“With Omar, we know there are big things waiting for him and there’s room for improvement,” coach Mike Holloway said. “For us, that's exciting.”
Also qualifying for the NCAA indoor meet was another returning athlete in sprinter Jeff Demps, who won the men's 60 meters in 6.59 seconds.
Demps is the two-time defending national champion in the indoor 60m, recording times of 6.56 and 6.53 in the 2010 and 2011 meets, respectively.
“We're obviously very pleased with Jeff,” Holloway said. “He'll be the first to tell you that he didn't execute the race well in the final, but he's been working a lot in practice and he'll only continue to improve as we get deeper into the season.”
The Gators captured 11 events over the weekend, picking up six victories on Friday and five on Saturday.
The men's squad won seven events and the women took four, including three on the event's second day.
Perhaps the most impressive effort on the women's side came from the 4x400 relay team.
Lanie Whitaker, Ugonna Ndu, Bria Goodson, and Ebony Eutsey took first place with a season -best 3:35.18 mark, beating second-place Virginia Tech by 9.3 seconds.
Florida missed the automatic qualifying time of 3:34 by 1.18 seconds.
“For our women's 4x400 to get that victory without senior leader Alishea Usery, that was huge for them,” Holloway said. “That was big.”
Goodson — the group's alternate runner — raced in place of Usery because Holloway wanted to see how they would fare in the senior's absence.
Setting personal bests in event victories over the weekend were Marquis Dendy in the men's long jump (7.69m/25-2.75), Dwight Barbiasz in the men's high jump(2.23m/7-3.75), Eddie Lovett in the men's 60m hurdles (7.72 seconds), Taylor Burke in the women's high jump (1.82m/5-11.50) and Darshay Davis in the women's 200m invite (23.91 seconds).
“I'm very pleased with our overall performances today,” Holloway said on Feb. 4. “We're continuing to improve every weekend and that's what we want to see.”
