The collegiate track and field season is reaching its apex, and with one final chance to test their fitness on Friday and Saturday before the postseason gets underway, the Florida Gators delivered.
The premier races across the two meets Florida traveled to – the East Coast Relays in Jacksonville for the throws and distance squads, the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the sprints and jumps squads – were the men’s 400-meter contests down in the bayou.
Florida entered eight runners across four heats, and three Gators found their way inside the top eight finishers.
Coming off a stellar 45.37-second collegiate debut at the distance two weeks ago at home, junior Justin Braun once again led the Gators with his second-place finish in 45.40 seconds. He was only beaten to the line by Georgia sophomore Will Floyd, the NCAA indoor champion over 400 meters in March.
Redshirt seniors Jenoah McKiver and Reheem Hayles both had indoor seasons disrupted by injuries, but their performances Saturday afternoon showed the tandem is prepared for the coming weeks.
Hayles has raced several times this outdoor season, but his 45.61-second dash was the closest to his All-American form from last year. Running out of heat three, he finished sixth overall.
For McKiver, it was his first individual race of the outdoor season after opening with a relay leg at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational on April 19. He ran a 45.97-second clocking, over a second off his personal best. At the invitational, he said he’s still building back from the training deficit his lower back injury put him in this winter.
Rounding out the top half of Florida’s finishers was freshman Nick Spikes, who finished 12th overall with a personal best of 46.18 seconds.
Sprints
Freshman Jaden Wiley has progressed steadily since first arriving in Gainesville, and the Georgia native produced his finest moment so far on Saturday. Running with a significant tailwind of 2.9 meters per second, Wiley covered 100 meters in 10.12 seconds, the fastest time of his career under any conditions.
Wiley ran nearly as fast (10.13) at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational. He finished third this time, ahead of professionals Robert Gregory and Joseph Fahnbulleh, two former Gators who now train in Gainesville.
Anthaya Charlton took the weekend off from the runway and instead tore up the straightaway. The Bahamian senior backed up her wind-aided 11.12-second 100-meter performance from two weeks ago with a legal 11.14-second clocking Saturday afternoon. She finished third overall – second among collegians – and is currently tied as the third-fastest performer in UF history.
Just over an hour later, Charlton returned to the blocks once again to contest the 200-meter for the first time in two years. She got out strong but faded as the finish line drew nearer, finishing sixth overall in 23.27 seconds. Just as in Wiley’s race, the wind was over the allowable limit at 2.9 meters per second.
Hurdles
Freshman Habiba Harris finished eighth overall in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Her 13.17-second clocking was the third-best among collegians in the field.
In a race between a handful of the best 110-meter hurdlers in the nation, junior Demaris Waters finished third in 13.37 seconds.
Freshman Vance Nilsson made his much-anticipated collegiate debut in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday. Nilsson, the 2024 World Junior (under-20) champion in this event, had a solid indoor season over the 60-meter hurdles, but the longer outdoor race is his specialty. He finished first in an eight-man field, finishing in 51.38 seconds.
Distance
After failing to finish his steeplechase debut at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational, freshman Graham Myers rebounded with a convincing win Friday night in a time of 8:55.24. He now sits just outside the top 10 performers in program history.
The Gators landed two athletes inside the top four of the women’s 5,000-meter race, with redshirt senior Liina Winborn finishing runner-up in 16:46.56 and redshirt freshman Kate Drummond placing fourth with a time of 17:20.40.
Redshirt junior Jess Edwards and redshirt freshman Layla Haynes both set new personal bests in the 800 meters. They finished fourth and fifth overall, respectively, and dipped under 2:05 for the first time in their careers with times of 2:04.63 and 2:04.75.
Sophomore Miguel Pantojas carried over the two-lap success to the men’s race, finishing second in a personal best of 1:47.62.
Throws
Florida sophomore shot putter Gracelyn Leiseth and junior Logan Montgomery picked up wins Friday. Leiseth landed a best mark of 17.36 meters on her first throw, clearing the 17-meter barrier in her third consecutive competition. Meanwhile, Montgomery’s winning mark of 18.38 meters is the second-best of his career.
Junior Alida van Daalen, a four-time first team All-American in the shot put and two-time SEC champion, made her season debut in the event, finishing behind only Leiseth with a mark of 16.11 meters. The Netherlands native is recovering from an early-season shoulder injury that kept her out of the shot put before this point.
Van Daalen returned and dominated the field in the women’s discus competition Saturday. She won by over 8 meters and surpassed 62 meters on four throws. Her best mark on the day was 65.45 meters, leapfrogging Fresno State senior Cierra Jackson for the second-best mark in Division I this year.
Behind van Daalen, junior Akari Isaac shattered her career-high by nearly 3 meters, launching the discus 55.74 meters. That mark was good enough for third in the competition and fourth in program history.
Sophomore Leikel Cabrera Gay won the men’s javelin competition with a best mark of 69.04 meters. Despite the sizable victory, he came up over 8 meters short of his best performance of the season. This ended a streak of three consecutive meets with a personal best, coincidentally also the first three meets of his career as a Gator.
Jumps
Redshirt senior Malcolm Clemons had a subpar season for his standards, failing to qualify for the national championships for the first time since 2022. However, Saturday seemed to be a step in the right direction.
Clemens defeated Georgia SEC indoor champion Jayden Keys in the men’s long jump competition and recorded a distance of 7.82 meters. His best mark secured the win, but his consistency with four jumps of 7.50 meters or better could prove more promising.
The freshman triple jump duo of Jaden Lippett and Asia Phillips each had impressive performances. Lippett won the men’s competition with a wind-aided jump of 15.86 meters, the best mark of his career. Phillips finished fourth in the women’s field at 13.22 meters.
Relays
In a stacked field, the quartet of Braun, junior Garrett Fox, sophomore Malique Smith-Band and Wiley finished fourth in the men’s 4x100-meter relay. The team broke the 39-second barrier for the first time this season, getting the baton around in 38.94 seconds.
With the regular season complete, Florida shifts its focus to the postseason. The Gators will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to compete in the SEC Outdoor Championships from May 15 to 17.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney
Paul is a junior sports journalism major who is covering the track and field beat in his first semester with the Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys watching commentary Youtube channels and consuming every medium of track and field content imaginable.
