The calendar turning from one year to the next symbolizes a transition of seasons in collegiate athletics, and for the Florida Gators, it means the switch is flipped from cross country to indoor track and field. Head coach Mike Holloway’s program got its second of three seasons underway Friday afternoon in Gainesville at the Jimmy Carnes University Invite.
“My big thing in a meet like this is, I call it a rust-buster, to kind of see where we are and where our fitness levels are,” Holloway said. “I have a baseline now, I know the things we need to work on… We gotta be ready for the big time in six weeks and we gotta get to work now.”
Sprints
The Gators executed a sweep in the women’s 300-meter dash, with Tyra Cox, Quincy Penn and Sydney Gaynor Sutton rounding out the top three in the event. Penn’s performance was good for a personal best, jumping from a previous best of 38.86 to 37.17.
The men’s 300-meter dash, which featured Noah Lyles and Cheickna Traore, ended with Jayden Horton-Mims winning his heat and placing fourth overall in his collegiate debut, while Junior Malique Smith-Band placed sixth. Horton-Mims and Smith-Band’s runs were overshadowed by a career-best performance from Miami junior Ace Malone, whose 32.70 time set a Hurricanes school record.
Junior Jade Brown took a win in the women’s 60-meter dash. Brown, an Arizona transfer in 2025, faced an injury in the opener of the 2025 indoor season that hindered her performance. After opening the 2026 season healthy, Brown’s goals for the year are clear.
“Same way indoor as it would be outdoor: make it to nationals, score at nationals,” Brown said.
The sprinting success wasn’t exclusive to Brown, either. Payton Payne placed third in the 60-meter dash, while Almond Small’s strong finish propelled him to a new personal best of 6.74, good for third overall in the men’s event.
At 47.92, Rios Prude Jr. led the way in the men’s 400-meter dash, an event he’s no stranger to. Prude later ran another 400 in UF’s 4x400 relays.
Distance
Still riding the high of strong cross country seasons, Florida’s distance runners collected four wins.
Freshman Claire Stegall got the day’s proceedings off to a hot start in the first track event of the meet, breaking the tape in the women’s 1,000 meters 2:41.72.
Over the first three laps, the Tennessee native was content to reserve energy and stick with the pack. When she hit the 600-meter mark, Stegall found another gear to pull away from the field. She covered the last quarter-mile in 60.95 seconds.
“We went through 400 [meters] pretty slow and no one was coming to take the lead,” Stegall said. “I was like, ‘Here we go,’ and picked it up a little bit… and tried to maintain that through the end.”
By the time she reached the finish line, Stegall was three seconds clear of the field and had cemented her place as the 18th-fastest woman in collegiate history. Needless to say, it was a successful track debut in her Florida kit.
“I was really excited by the way she competed,” Florida assistant distance coach Will Palmer said. “I was really excited about the decision-making and what she did when the race was running slow … It’s not new information, it’s just new information in a race setting.”
Junior Layla Haynes and senior Beth Morley joined Stegall inside the top four finishers, placing second and fourth, respectively.
Gavin Nelson used his own late surge to win the men’s race, as the sophomore from Jacksonville claimed the men’s 1,000-meter title in 2:21.56. Florida athletes also finished third, fourth, sixth and seventh.
While racing unattached to preserve a redshirt, Graham Myers won the men’s mile in 4:08.04. The sophomore was over two seconds behind the leaders at the bell, but, like Stegall, his patience paid off with a blistering 28.66-second final lap to break the tape.
“Graham wasn’t really racing the two guys that he beat, they were kind of off hammering,” Palmer said. “He woke up with like a lap to go and he was like, ‘Oh dang, they’re pretty close, maybe I can get ‘em.’”
Josh Ruiz kept the winning ways rolling in the men’s 3,000 meters, taking the win in 8:11.27 while competing unattached. Like so many of his teammates before him, the sophomore from Miami showcased exquisite racing acumen on his way to victory.
In the women’s mile, sophomore Ashley Fitzgerald ran a personal best of 4:53.74 for seventh.
Jumps
Freshman Luke Stradley notched a solid performance in the men’s long jump. Stradley’s first two attempts were measured at 7.32 and 7.28 meters, respectively, before a 7.56-meter third jump earned him a win in his collegiate debut.
Stradley, who was sidelined six months due to torn tendons in his foot in April, said he felt he suffered mental roadblocks leading up to the Jan. 16 track meet, but the team’s preparation helped him build confidence in his ankle.
“I feel more ready than I thought I was,” Stradley said. “Going on for the season, I feel more confident and feeling like I can jump even farther.”
Stradley said Florida’s coaching and his performance today make him confident his numbers will only improve.
Pauline Bikembo added a solid performance in the women’s long jump, with a 6.14-meter jump placing her at third.
In the men’s triple jump, Jaden Lippett and Temoso Masikane brought home 1st and 3rd place finishes, with Lippett leaping to a 15.91-meter personal best. Meanwhile, Asia Phillips added a second-place finish with a 12.96-meter jump in the women’s session.
“Being that we came here in town, [Lippett, Masikane and fourth-place sophomore Nicholas Crosswhite] jumped from short approach and we were really just gonna go publicly practice,” Florida associate jumps coach Nic Petersen said. “I saw the three of them help each other, I saw them compete, I saw them stick their nose in there and get after it.”
Throws
Coach Eric Werskey’s throwers nearly completed a sweep of the day’s throwing events, claiming both shot put victories along with the men’s weight throw.
“We just never know what will happen with the first meet of the year, shaking off a lot of cobwebs and things,” Werskey said. “But I thought it was pretty good.”
Graduate student John Luke Witte commanded the ring in his hometown, as the Gainesville native launched five of the six best throws of the day in the men’s weight throw. His winning attempt landed at 21.10 meters.
Gracelyn Leiseth began her junior season by claiming the women’s shot put crown, heaving the shot 16.72 meters. This toss represents the best season-opening mark of her career by nearly a meter.
Freshman Jarno van Daalen’s long-awaited Florida debut lived up to the expectations, as the hulking Dutch 19-year-old only needed one legal mark – 18.50 meters – to earn the men’s shot put title by 83 centimeters. Despite the win, van Daalen’s deepest throws came on invalid attempts due to stepping out of the front of the circle.
“Jarno is just a little excited, it looks like,” Werskey said. “He’s upset with an 18.50, but I think that’s right at his indoor [personal best]... I think he was adding nearly a meter to what we’ve seen. Those were deep, so at least the ball’s jumping.”
Relays
The Gators fielded their first women’s 4x400-meter relay teams in nearly two years, and the results were immediately impressive.
Following impressive individual showings throughout the meet, Cox, Penn, Gaynor Sutton and freshman Malia Campbell united to get the baton around eight laps of the track in 3:34.55. That time was good enough to win by almost five seconds.
Four different men’s relay squads represented the Gators, with the quartet of freshman Jesse Myers, sophomore Nick Spikes, junior Miguel Pantojas and senior Garrett Fox proving the fastest. They finished third in 3:09.81, just ahead of the group that was designated as Florida’s “A-team.”
One significant storyline to come from the relays was the return of Wanya McCoy. The Bahamian senior appeared to be on his way to a historic season last winter before, according to Holloway, suffering a “major quad” injury at the SEC Indoor Championships. This was McCoy’s first race back in a Florida uniform and could prove to be a major factor in the Gators’ title hopes.
“It was very good to see him back and see him not hurt,” Holloway said. “It was really big.”
The Gators’ next meet will mark their first of three trips to Arkansas this indoor season, as they look to contest the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville on Jan. 30 and 31.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow them on X at @phofmahoney and @logandmcbride.
Logan McBride is a journalism junior and the Fall 2025 K-12 education reporter. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows or playing basketball at Southwest Rec. He is also a big football fan and will die for Dak Prescott.
Paul is a senior in his fourth semester on the track and field/cross country beat for The Alligator. In his free time, you can increasingly see him jogging around Gainesville or endlessly falling deeper down the rabbit hole that is track Twitter.
