Kyra Jefferson saved her best for last—literally.
On the last day of Jefferson’s final appearance in the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the redshirt senior—already a top-10 collegiate women’s 200-meter runner—ran the best time in NCAA outdoor history in Saturday’s 200-meter final.
Her time of 22.02 seconds broke the previous record of 22.04 seconds, set by LSU’s Dawn Sowell in 1989.
Overall, the Gators women’s team collected 39 points and fifth place overall, an improvement from last year when it tied for ninth place.
Jefferson, Skylar Ross-Ransom, Destinee Gause and Shayla Sanders took third place in the 4x100 relays with a time of 42.73 seconds.
Jefferson, Gause, Sharrika Barnett and Taylor Sharpe could not find the same success in the 4x400, the final event of the four-day competition.
The quartet completed the relay in 3:27.76, almost two seconds better than Thursday’s second-place preliminary mark, but it was only good enough for sixth place in the final round.
Sophomore Yanis David continued her hot streak, reaching 13.64 meters and third place in the triple jump. Joining her in the event was junior Darrielle McQueen, who finished 16th after jumping for 13.08 meters.
David and McQueen also competed in the long jump together. David finished 17th with a jump of 6.01 meters, while McQueen took 10th place after jumping for 6.33 meters.
Senior Marija Vucenovic finished second in the javelin throw. Vucenovic’s toss of 58.58 meters earned eight of the Gators women’s 39 points.
Lloydricia Cameron added two points of her own through a seventh-place finish in the shot put competition. The junior from Miami was crowned SEC champion in the same event at the SEC Outdoor Championships in May.
Sophomore Sharrika Barnett dropped to fifth place in the final round of the 400-meter with a time of 51.84 seconds after placing third in the preliminary round on Thursday.
Junior Jontavia Dykes finished 18th in the discus throw with a toss of 50.97 meters.
The Gators will head back to Gainesville with a championship from the men’s team and a top-five finish from the women’s team. This is the men’s second straight NCAA Outdoor championship, while the women’s team now has four-straight top-10 performances at the competition.
Only Florida saw both its men’s and women’s teams finish in the top five, and the 100.5 combined points led all schools.
The Gators had a total of nine top-three performances, including five first-place finishes.
Jefferson held one of those five with her record-setting 200-meter finish, while junior KeAndre Bates (long jump, triple jump), senior Eric Futch (400mH), and freshman Grant Holloway (110mH) had the other four.
Contact Andrew Huang at ahuang@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @AndrewJHuang.
Kyra Jefferson sprints during the 2015 Pepsi Florida Relays at Percy Beard Track.
