The Florida men’s and women’s track and field teams will travel to Austin, Texas, for the three-day Texas Relays. Competition begins today.
This will be the first major outdoor meet for the Gators in 2015, as last week’s UCF Black and Gold Challenge featured just three UF athletes — women throwers Jayla Bostic, Lloydricia Cameron and Jontavia Dykes.
Coach Mike Holloway will be sending a total of 17 athletes to compete in 14 respective events.
The Gators will also feature four relay squads, as both the men’s and women’s 4x400 groups will compete alongside the men’s 4x200 and the women’s 1600 sprint medley.
Senior thrower Fawn Miller will be making her highly anticipated 2015 debut in the javelin toss.
Miller is coming off a historic outdoor season in which she won the Southeastern Conference javelin title, setting the meet record in the process, and the NCAA javelin title — both in personal record-breaking fashion.
Including the conference and national titles, Miller won each of her final four javelin events last season, also doing so in the LSU Invitational and the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
Senior jumper and USTFCCCA National Indoor Field Athlete of the Year Marquis Dendy will make his outdoor season debut in the long jump.
The Middletown, Delaware, native will look to maintain the momentum he gathered at the SEC Indoor Championships and the NCAAs.
Dendy won the conference and national titles in both the long jump and triple jump—with the latter national title setting a new UF record and placing him third on the all-time collegiate list.
Joining Dendy in the long jump will be freshman jumper KeAndre Bates, who will make his outdoor collegiate debut.
Bates’ first indoor season as a Gator was highlighted by a PR-setting third-place finish in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He also set a PR in the triple jump at the national meet.
NCAA indoor triple jump champion Ciarra Brewer will make her outdoor debut in Austin. Brewer is a historically-better triple jumper in outdoor meets, as her PR in each of her outdoor seasons is over one-tenth of a second better than her indoor season-bests.
Follow Kyle Brutman on Twitter @KBrut13
