Florida ran out of oxygen.
The top-ranked Gators, who had a sub-par Day 1 start at the NCAA Indoors Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., couldn’t rebound enough on the final day leaving both sides settling for third place.
The 4x400-relay is what decided the fate of both teams’ standings in the national’s final results.
The Gators had a chance to seal first place on the women’s side entering the 4x4 due to point leader Georgia not having any participants in the final event.
But Oregon and Texas finished first and second leaving Florida stalling in third after their fourth place finish in the 4x4.
Robin Reynolds, Destinee Gause, Ebony Eutsey and Loreal Curtis ran a time of 2:37.83 to tie for third with Georgia scoring 40.5 points.
Coach Mike Holloway said on his team’s performance that they obviously didn’t do the way they wanted to during competition.
“Sometimes you lose championships and sometimes you get beat,” Holloway said.
“We lost this one. We just didn’t perform the way we’re accustomed to performing.”
The men had a similar outcome.
They fell out of the top 6 early on and were able to come back, but stalled in third place after a collision in the 4x4 between Dedric Dukes and a Texas A&M runner diminished any hopes of the team finishing high in overall standings.
Dukes was pushed to the outer lanes and grazed the wall entering the final bank, as the A&M runner dropped his baton.
Florida (impeded) and A&M (unsportsmanlike) were disqualified on the controversial clash between the runners.
LSU, who was currently in first at the time of the incident, ended the men’s 4x4 in first place easily taking the victory and keeping the NCAA title in the Southeastern conference.
“As the head coach of the program, I have to put this one on my shoulders,” Holloway said.
I have to get back to Gainesville, figure some things out and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
All teams in competition fell to the Oregon Ducks who ended up sweeping the NCAA Indoors, and became the third team to win on both sides since Arizona State in 2008.
The Oregon women’s team made it their fifth straight indoor championship victory.
Although the Gators thought they could’ve done better, the men marked six straight years as a top-three finisher at indoor nationals, and the women scored their highest point total since 2005.
But all that is aside now as the indoor season came to a close, and two third-place finishes is what UF will have to settle with to end the indoor campaign.
All the UF track and field team can reside with now is the outdoor season.
“At the end of the day, we have to find the way to make sure we flip that switch so our passion and intensity and pride will be better,” Holloway said.
“We can’t go backward, we have to move forward.”
Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence
