After an indoor season that saw Florida track and field record its worst conference championship finishes in program history and only score a combined eight points at the national meet, coach Mike Holloway had a simple message:
“Remember who we are.”
Who they are is a team that hasn’t finished worse than third on a national stage since 2022. While this weekend’s showing at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, wasn’t quite champion-level, it was certainly a step forward.
The Florida women totaled 79 points, finishing third behind Georgia and Texas A&M. It was a well-rounded effort from the Gators: 19 points came from the sprints, relays and hurdles; 24 from distance races; 15 from jumps; and 21 from throws. Three women climbed to the top of the podium, bringing home a coveted SEC gold.
"The biggest difference was athletes being healthy and focused,” Holloway said. “The women were healthier and much more focused than indoors."
Still dealing with the impact of multiple injuries, the men finished 12th with 38 points. It was a frustrating result but showed improvement from their last-place finish in March.
Women’s team
Senior Anthaya Charlton, the brightest spark for the Gators during their indoor campaign, produced the weekend’s first signature moment with a commanding victory in the women’s long jump May 16.
On paper, 6.47 meters is equal to the Bahamian’s worst mark of the season. However, the jump was taken into a -2.9 meters-per-second headwind and was still good enough to cement Charlton’s victory by a healthy 10-centimeter margin. She felt comfortable enough with her lead to pass on each of her final three attempts.
On the track, Charlton finished third in the 100-meter final, crossing the line in an impressive 11.14 seconds. The run secured six points for the Gators, adding to the 10 she claimed on the long jump runway. She earned three more from a sixth-place finish with the 4x100-meter relay team. Running with sophomore Quincy Penn, junior Gabby Matthews and freshman Habiba Harris, Florida impressed with a season’s best of 43.46 seconds.
Harris, who hails from Santa Cruz, Jamaica, also won her signature event. She posted the fastest time in the NCAA this season with a blistering 12.62-second run in May 16’s 100-meter hurdles preliminaries. She was rewarded a conference crown in the final the next day, taking down an experienced field in 12.75 seconds.
“It speaks to her talent and her trusting the process and her training,” Holloway said. “She has bought into the program and shows up and works hard every day.”
Junior Alida van Daalen has been one of the premier throwers in the NCAA since arriving in Gainesville. The Netherlands native continued to add to her legacy with her second consecutive SEC discus title.
Her winning mark of 65.24 meters, nearly 8 meters farther than any other competitor, emphasized her prominence in the national title conversation.
“We took a ‘bigger picture approach’ as we looked at the season and planned to build the rhythm and connection a week at a time for both teams’ events,” said UF throws coach Eric Werskey. “Alida bought into this vision early with patience and trust. She has given herself time to adjust and build into her respective rhythms.”
Van Daalen’s shoulder injury delayed her shot put opener until May 2, where she threw a modest 16.11 meters at the East Coast Relays.
She looked like a completely different thrower in May 16’s competition. The Olympian surpassed the 17-meter barrier four times, ending with a best mark of 17.51 meters. She finished sixth, one spot behind teammate Gracelyn Leiseth, who threw a personal best of 17.74 meters. Leiseth also scored in the discus for the Gators with her seventh-place finish.
None of Florida’s distance runners managed to come away victorious like Parker Valby and Flomena Asekol did last May, but they still provided valuable points to the team race.
Junior Hilda Olemomoi recorded a runner-up finish in the 10,000-meter on May 16, crossing the line in 33:15.52. Olemomoi was hanging just off the shoulder of Arkansas sophomore Payton Noe for a majority of the race, but Noe pulled away for a decisive win over the final mile.
Olemomoi was back the next day for the prelims of the 1,500-meter, where she secured a spot in the final alongside fellow Florida juniors Tia Wilson and Beth Morley.
Wilson, the conference champion over the mile indoors, led a tight pack through the first 1,100 meters of the final. Wilson faded as the race began to wind down, finishing fifth in 4:22.35.
Olemomoi came in fourth, beating her teammate to the line by .01 seconds. Morley finished eighth. Wilson took to the track again for the 5,000-meter final, where she finished seventh with a personal best of 15:52.13.
Redshirt junior Jess Edwards ran the best race of her career, finishing fifth in the 800-meter final in 2:04.72. Edwards showed impressive poise, moving from eighth to fifth in the final 300 meters.
Florida’s freshmen duo of Alyssa Banales and Asia Phillips each scored in their SEC Outdoor Championship debuts. Banales finished seventh in the long jump with a best mark of 6.08 meters, and Phillips secured a sixth-place finish with her 13.33-meter leap in the triple jump.
Imani Washington scored the first points of the weekend in the meet’s first final, placing seventh in the hammer throw off the strength of a 61.83-meter personal best.
Men’s team
Two Gator men, as well as the 4x400-meter relay team, left Lexington with bronze medals.
Malcolm Clemons had his best competition of 2025 by a significant margin. The redshirt senior paced the long jump field with his second-round effort of 7.91 meters up until the final few attempts of the competition. In round six, he was passed by both Georgia freshman Jayden Keys and South Carolina senior Channing Ferguson.
Senior Jacob Lemmon outperformed his entry seed by four positions, finishing third in the discus final after recording his best throw ever in a collegiate meet. His 61.80-meter throw moved him up to second in program history, behind only the UF record of 63.06 meters set by Kai Chang last April.
Sophomore Rios Prude Jr., senior Ashton Schwartzman and redshirt seniors Reheem Hayles and Jenoah McKiver did not qualify for the open 400-meter final. But they came back with an opportunity to close the meet on a strong note and did so in the 4x400-meter relay.
When McKiver received the baton from Hayles, he was staring down a gap of over a second between himself and the leading Georgia and Texas A&M squads. McKiver recorded the fastest split of any anchor leg at 45.37 seconds but wasn’t able to reel in the competition as he brought Florida home in third in 3:03.27.
Demaris Waters finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles final. In a field featuring six of the eight fastest men in the nation this season, 13.39 seconds was good for fourth. Leikel Cabrera Gay, a sophomore transfer from Umpqua Community College in Oregon, continued his season with a fourth-place finish in the javelin throw final at 76.16 meters.
Sophomores Miguel Pantojas and Gavin Nelson combined for an unexpected five points in the 800-meter final. They secured the last two spots through to the final and made the most of it. Pantojas finished fifth in 1:46.76, and Nelson placed eighth with his personal best of 1:47.27.
The next stop on the Gators’ postseason schedule is Jacksonville for the NCAA East Preliminaries.
“What we did this weekend should show the athletes that we are making progress,” Holloway said. “The key now will be for both the athletes and coaches to be diligent in our preparations as we move into the championships."
The meet will be hosted at North Florida from May 28 to 31.
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.
