It may only be January, but the Gators struggled to get anything going on the first day of the Rod McCravy Memorial, their first meet of the season.
The only bright spot for the No. 1 men’s team on Friday was sophomore KeAndre Bates, who jumped his way into being one of the nation’s top jumpers again this year. He placed second only to Marquise Goodwin, the 2015 Pan American Games silver medalist, with a jump of 7.73 meters in the long jump.
For the No. 6-ranked women, sophomore Darrielle McQueen took third in the long jump with a 5.75-meter leap before passing on her last three attempts.
In the weight throw event, sophomore Lloydricia Cameron (16.88m) and redshirt freshman Jontavia Dykes (16.11) finished in the 8th and 9th place spots, respectively, on the opening day.
"There’s two things we have to get done: better focus, more intensity," coach Mike Holloway said in a release. "There has to be a little more seriousness to the craft."
The Gators entered the second day of the Invitational determined to represent their No. 1 and No. 6 rankings.
For the women, seniors Robin Reynolds, Kyra Jefferson and Claudia Francis along with sophomore Taylor Sharpe ran the top time in the NCAA this year with a 3:30.51 in the 4x400 relay, finishing just under seven seconds in front of second-place Miami. Their relay was also good enough for Florida’s third-best all-time.
In the men’s 800-meter race, junior Andres Arroyo took first with a time of 1:47.43, the second-best time in Division I this season. His teammate, senior Ryan Schnulle, placed close behind in fourth.
"I gave them a race plan. Andres executed it to perfection," said Holloway. "Ryan (Schnulle) has been a little sick. But he is right where he usually is."
One of the highlights of Saturday was the men’s 4x400 relay. Seniors Najee Glass and Arman Hall, along with freshmen Ryan Clark and Kunle Fasasi, captured first place with a time of 3:05.57, narrowly missing the meet record set by the Gators last year (3:04.22).
Though UF performed better on the second day, it still left room for improvement overall.
"We just kind of lost our focus in areas this weekend. And that’s on me," Holloway said. "I’m the head coach. It’s my job. I’m going to check myself before I check anyone else on that."
The Gators’ next chance to show improvement will be on Jan. 29-30, when they travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to compete at the Razorback Invitational.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @Lstaff27.
UF’s Najee Glass races the final leg of the 4x400-meter relay to close out the 2015 Florida Relays on April 4, 2015, at the Percy Beard Track.
