A week after the UF track and field program opened its season in South Carolina, the Gators left Nashville, Tennessee, with mixed results in the Commodore Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, the Gators participated in the distance medley relay. The women’s team, represented by redshirt freshman Jessica Pascoe, redshirt sophomores Caitlin McQuilkin-Bell and Maddox Patterson, and redshirt junior Lauren Perry finished in third place with a time of 12:21.50.
Sophomore Justin Pacifico and juniors Jack Guyton, Sam Ahrenholz and Kyren Hollis of the men’s team worked together to take first place with a time of 9:53.89.
The Gators kicked off Saturday’s action with four athletes running the mile. Patterson and redshirt junior Morgan Hull represented the women’s team, while redshirt sophomore Magnus Pettersen and sophomore Marshall Dillon took part for the men’s team.
Hull (5:08.55) took 19th place and Patterson (5:14.22) took 22nd place, while Pettersen and Dillon finished in the top-10. Pettersen (4:14.10) took fourth place and Dillon (4:15.58) finished in seventh place.
Florida finished the competition with a total of seven athletes running in the 800-meter. McQuilkin-Bell (fifth place, 2:13.65) and Perry (eighth place, 2:22.83) represented the women’s team. The quintet of Pacifico, Guyton, Ahrenholz, Hollis and redshirt junior Jack Beitter ran on the men’s side.
All five finished in the top 10 in the Gators’ strongest performance of the Invitational. Pacifico (1:50.37) set a personal record and led the way in fifth place with Guyton, Hollis and Ahrenholz taking sixth through eighth place. Beitter finished tenth.
Hollis’ time of 1:52.32 was a personal record.
The Gators will return to Clemson, South Carolina, for their next competition, the Clemson Invitational, on Jan. 19-20.
Follow Andrew Huang on Twitter @AndrewJHuang and contact him at ahuang@alligator.org.
Coach Mike Holloway's men's team took first place in the distance medley relay at the Commodore Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee.
