A pair of lengthy weather delays brought on by typical north Florida storms couldn’t dull the energy of Florida track and field this weekend as it competed at the NCAA East Regional, hosted by North Florida in Jacksonville.
With tickets to the national championships on the line, the Gators answered the call. Nineteen entries – eight for the men, 11 for the women – punched their tickets to Eugene, Oregon, in two weeks time, an improvement from the five entries that qualified for nationals indoors.
Under the tutelage of coach Nic Petersen, Florida’s jumps group stole the show over the weekend, as all five athletes that competed finished inside the top 12, earning their spot in Oregon.
Redshirt senior Malcolm Clemons got things going for the Gators on May 28. After an indoor season where he was hampered by a heel injury that prevented him from qualifying for nationals, Clemons has been jumping well again in the outdoor season, highlighted by a third-place finish at the SEC Championships. A 7.59-meter jump followed by two fouls wasn’t a performance of that caliber, but it was enough to finish seventh and qualify for his third-straight outdoor championships. He finished fourth in 2023 and third in 2024.
Both freshman Alyssa Banales and junior Anthaya Charlton finished inside the top five in the women’s long jump competition. Banales jumped a personal best of 6.41 meters to finish fifth, earning her spot at nationals after coming up five spots short of qualifying indoors. Charlton only took two attempts, but 6.54-meter first round mark was good enough for third.
Florida’s freshman pair of Jaden Lippett and Asia Phillips both qualified in the triple jump. Lippett’s only legal mark of the day was a 15.94-meter personal best that earned him 10th, while Phillips had an impressive series to finish third with a best mark of 13.29 meters.
Sprints
Charlton’s weekend wasn’t limited to the runway, and her best performance of this meet came on the straightaway. She broke the program record over 100 meters in both of her races, running 11.05 seconds in the first round and 11.01 in the quarterfinals. The UF record was previously shared by Shayla Sanders and Michelle Freeman at 11.13 seconds. She finished third in her heat and fifth overall, earning two individual tickets to Oregon.
Junior Gabby Matthews was a First-Team All-American in the 400-meter hurdles last season while racing for Ole Miss but primarily focused on the 200 meters this spring. She ran season’s bests in each of her races this weekend, earning her spot in Eugene with a ninth-place finish in 22.87 seconds. The time represents a new personal best for Matthews and ties her with Michelle Freeman as the eighth-fastest athlete in program history.
The Gators packed the startlist of the men’s 400 meters, with seven entrants across four heats. Five Florida runners qualified through to the next round, with redshirt seniors Jenoah McKiver and Reheem Hayles and senior Ashton Schwartzman being inside the nine fastest first round times. Only McKiver was able to translate that success into the next round, as he ran 45.29 seconds to finish seventh overall, earning his first appearance in an individual event at outdoor nationals.
Freshman Jaden Wiley reached the second round in both the 100 and 200 meters, but suffered unlucky breaks in each. In the 100 meters, he recorded a strong time of 10.14 seconds, but finished in 13th position and missed qualifying for nationals by .01 seconds. Later on that day, he scratched the 200-meter quarterfinals.
Hurdles
Habiba Harris continued to build upon her stellar freshman season with a pair of 12.80-second 100-meter hurdles clockings to book a trip to nationals for the first time in her career. The Jamaica native won the SEC title on May 17 and has been far and away the best hurdler in the nation this season. There have been five wind-legal performances of 12.80 seconds or faster in the NCAA this spring, and Harris owns four of them.
Florida junior Demaris Waters, a Second-Team All-American in the 110-meter hurdles in 2024 at San Jose State, earned a return trip to Eugene with a ninth-place finish in 13.49 seconds.
Distance
Junior Hilda Olemomoi, the national runner-up over 10,000 meters last season while at Alabama, earned a spot back at the national championships with her third-place finish on Thursday night. She was sticking with NC State junior Grace Hartman throughout the first 8,000 meters of the race, but Hartman opened a gap over the closing laps that reached 13 seconds by the time she crossed the line. Penn State junior Florence Caron overtook Olemomoi on the final lap, with the Gator eventually finishing in 32:45.45.
Olemomoi returned to the track two days later for the 5,000 meters, where she was joined by junior Tia Wilson. Running out of the first heat, Olemomoi, also the NCAA runner-up last year in this event, finished sixth in 15:46.81. With only the top five finishers in each heat guaranteed a spot in Eugene, Olemomoi had to sit and wait as the second heat raced to see if she would hang on to one of two time qualifier spots.
Unfortunately for Olemomoi, the second heat was significantly faster, with 10 women running faster than her. This meant she ended up in 16th, only one spot ahead of Wilson and her 15:47.13 finish. Her time ranks fifth on the program all-time list.
Redshirt freshman Layla Haynes ran a personal best of 2:03.81 in the first round to earn a lane in the quarterfinals. She became the 10th-fastest Gator of all-time with the run. In the next round, she finished 17th overall in 2:04.40.
Throws
Alida van Daalen earned a qualifying spot for nationals in both the shot put and discus over the weekend. The junior and Dutch Olmypian finished seventh with a best mark of 17.08 meters. The next day, she fought off fouls on her first two throws to claim second place with a third-round throw of 59.78 meters.
The shot put competition was a dramatic affair for sophomore Gracelyn Leiseth. The original results read that she had finished 13th with a best mark of 16.54 meters, losing out on the final qualifying spot on countback after fouling each of her final two throws. However, a protest was filed on her third-round throw, which was initially ruled a foot foul. The foul was overturned, and she vaulted from 13th to first on the strength of a major personal best of 18.31 meters. She’s now third on the UF all-time list outdoors and fourth when combining indoors and outdoors.
In 2024, Leikel Cabrera Gay put together a dominant season at Umpqua Community College, which lies an hour south of Eugene. In 2025, he’ll be returning to Oregon as one of the top contenders in the NCAA Division I National Championships after finishing fourth in the javelin on May 30. His last throw was his best throw, recording a distance of 73.11 meters.
Senior Jacob Lemmon earned a spot at the fourth national championship of his collegiate career after finishing eighth in the discus with a best mark of 58.05 meters. Lemmon has earned two First-Team All-American honors in his career, finishing fifth in 2021 and sixth in 2024.
Relays
The men’s 4x400-meter relay saw a shakeup in the lineup, with sophomore Malique Smith-Band slotting in for junior Justin Braun. The outcome was still what one would expect from the collegiate leaders, as the Gators won their heat in 3:02.01, the second-fastest time across both regions. McKiver and Hayles had particularly impressive runs, splitting 44.87 and 44.39 seconds, respectively.
The 4x100-meter squad, consisting of Braun, Wiley, Smith-Band and junior Garrett Fox, didn’t have as smooth of a path to nationals. Getting the baton around in 39.21 seconds, Florida finished fifth in its heat and 11th overall, earning the second-to-last time qualifier.
The Gators’ 19 nationals entries will head across the country to Eugene, Oregon, to contest the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships from June 11 to 14 at Hayward Stadium.
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.
