Florida coach Mike Holloway isn’t looking in the rearview mirror.
He isn’t thinking about what his team could have accomplished in indoor season but didn’t.
He isn’t worrying about the injuries his men’s team has been battling since the beginning of indoor season.
The only thing concerning Holloway now is what he can control: the outdoor season.
He wants his athletes to do the same.
Look ahead, not behind.
“The great (thing) is that we don’t have to wait a full year to redeem ourselves,” Holloway said. “We can start redeeming ourselves this weekend.”
Today, the Gators open their outdoor season in Orlando at the UCF Black & Gold Challenge.
Florida will be sending a group of athletes including throwers and distance runners to compete in UCF’s Soccer and Track Complex.
The group includes athletes not given opportunities to compete in indoor season.
“We feel like we are more of an outdoor team. We are more comfortable outdoors, we train outdoors everyday.” Holloway said. “We have athletes that didn’t compete indoors, 400 (meter) hurdlers, javelin throwers, hammer throwers and stuff like that, that will be outdoors. We pick up the 4x1 relay. We are excited about being outdoors.”
At last year’s Black & Gold Invitational, then-freshman Lloydricia Cameron made her outdoor debut by winning the discus with a best mark of 49.22 meters, while then-freshman Jontavia Dykes was able to secure second place with personal record of 46.55 meters.
Cameron and Dykes also placed fourth and fourteenth in the hammer throw, while former Gator and then-redshirt senior Jayla Bostic placed second.
In this year's competition, redshirt freshman AJ McFarland will make his outdoor competition debut in the hammer throw after a strong indoor season.
“Improvement, a little intensity,” Holloway said on what he expects to see out of his athletes in Orlando. “I think we lacked a little bit of intensity in indoors, so we need to work on our intensity and focus outdoors. Starting with the group traveling this weekend we need to display a little bit more tenacity.”
Competition starts at 11 a.m. for the Gators with Megan Reed in the javelin.
The competition continues at 2:30 with Dykes in the women’s hammer throw and Anders Eriksson, McFarland and Angel Parra in the men’s hammer throw.
The Black and Gold Invitational continues Saturday.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @lstaff27.
UF coach Mike Holloway smiles during the 2015 Florida Relays at James G. Pressly Stadium.
