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Friday, March 29, 2024
Lloydricia Cameron

Senior Lloydricia Cameron is heading to the NCAA Outdoor Championship for the third-consecutive year.

Forty-seven individuals entered the NCAA East Preliminary for Florida hoping to perform well enough to earn an outdoor national championship berth for the Gators.

After the first round of qualifying events in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, nine members of UF’s track and field program have already secured a spot at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

For the first time in school history, Florida will send three hammer throwers to outdoor nationals. Junior Anders Eriksson, freshman Thomas Mardal and redshirt junior AJ McFarland will try to top off a consistently dominant season with a trip to Eugene. The trio finished second, sixth and eleventh, respectively, in the qualifier.

Sixth-year senior Avione Allgood won the women’s javelin prelim with a top throw of 54.90 meters, and she’ll return to outdoors for the first time since 2014. It will be her first time competing at nationals for the Gators, as she transferred to UF from Oklahoma after the 2016 season.

For senior Lloydricia Cameron, it will be her third-consecutive time competing for a national title, after recording a second-place mark of 17.44 meters to qualify. The Miami, Florida, native will look to grab her first NCAA title in her last national meet as a Gator.

In the men’s long jump, senior KeAndre Bates and sophomore Grant Holloway did enough to earn a spot at nationals after finishing eighth and ninth, respectively, in the event.

Junior Yanis David and senior Darrielle McQueen finished eighth and ninth as well in the women’s long jump to move on to NCAAs.

In addition to the nine NCAA berths, Thursday’s action featured 11 more Gators who advanced to the final competitions that will determine who goes to Eugene. And those events will take place on the second and third days of NCAA East Prelims.

Freshman Cory Poole was the first UF runner to take the track, and he nabbed a victory (50.73) in heat three of the men’s 400-meter hurdles -- good for fifth overall -- to automatically advance to Friday’s final. And the women’s 400-meter hurdles resulted in sophomore Brandee’ Johnson (57.05, season best) and freshman Nikki Stephens (58.56) moving on for the women.

The trio of junior Sharrika Barnett, freshman Taylor Manson and senior Taylor Sharpe will return to the track on Day 2 after advancing in the women’s 400-meter prelim. Barnett won her heat with a time of 51.66, which was good for the second-fastest time overall.

With his best time of the season, junior Kunle Fasasi finished the men’s 400 in 45.68 to move on to the final. He will be joined by freshman Chantz Sawyers who finished his race in 45.86.

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Junior Ryan Clark will represent the Gator men in the 100-meter final after finishing 10th overall (10.24).

Florida will look to send two distance runners to Eugene after junior Kyren Hollis (men’s 800) and Elizabeth Bergh (women’s 1500) clocked qualifying times in their respective preliminary races.

Day 2 of the NCAA East Preliminary will feature Holloway in the men’s 110-meter hurdles prelim to qualify defend his national title.

You can follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org.

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