The men are in the hunt again.
After getting off to a rough start, the men are heading into the final day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in first place thanks to two wins by juniors Tony McQuay and Omar Craddock.
“What can you say about Omar and Tony,” coach Mike Holloway said. “They came in as the favorites and that’s not an easy thing to do. Incredible job by both guys, coming out here and performing the way they did.”
Not only was McQuay’s win his first NCAA Outdoor title, but it was the first 400-meter title in Florida’s history. McQuay used a personal best and school record time of 44.58 to edge out Oregon’s Mike Berry.
“Mike (Berry) is a good runner,” McQuay said. “I ran yesterday (in the men’s 4x400-meter relay) and the others had some rest so I had that on my mind. I thought Mike was going to get out a little slower. He picked up around the curve. I knew I was going to be in trouble so I had to kick it in a little earlier than I wanted to. But I lived up to my training and finished strong.”
McQuay’s time on Friday now ranks him first in the NCAA, second in the U.S. and third in the world.
This is McQuay’s second national title this year. He won the 400m at NCAA Indoor Championships earlier with a season best, national best and facility record time of 45.77.
Like McQuay, Craddock also won his second NCAA title of the year.
Craddock used an all-conditions best mark of 16.92 meters to win the triple jump title, making it the sixth straight NCAA title for the Gators in the event.
“(Winning) was fun,” Craddock said. “Like I've been saying this whole year, I have to be that guy to be number one, it's a lot of pressure, so I'm taking it in stride and doing what I have to do to be the number one. I've done it, indoors and out.”
The jumper proved he could handle pressure on Friday. After fouling on his first two jumps, Craddock had only one more chance to make it to the finals. On his last jump of the first flight he got a mark of 16.27 meters to advance him to the finals.
“I thought I was going to cry, honestly, after those first two (missed) jumps,” Craddock said. “I felt all this pressure but I had to really trust myself and Coach (Brian) O’Neal and I knew I needed to get comfortable so I could just get a mark and make it to finals.”
In addition to the two wins, the men got some help from junior Jeremy Postin’s runner-up finish in the hammer throw. After finishing in eighth last year, Postin used his first throw of 69.47 meters for his second place finish.
“What an unbelievable job by Jeremy,” Holloway said. “We’ve been talking about him all year long and how big he’s been. For him to get second at NCAAs, it says a lot about all the hard work he and Coach (Steve) Lemke have put in and what we can look forward to from him in the future.”
The men have two more scoring opportunities today as they try to hold onto their first place position.
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
