Someone forgot to tell Jarius Cooper he's only a freshman.
The Palm Coast native kicked off his career in spectacular fashion Saturday at the Snowbird Invitational hosted by Florida State.
He won his collegiate debut with a time of 13.98 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles.
Cooper's mark was just .05 seconds slow of UF's all-time top-10 list and earned him the first regional-qualifying mark of his short career.
"I don't believe that I have ever had a freshman hurdler open up and run under 14 seconds in the first meet of their career," UF track and field Coach Mike Holloway said. "I'm very impressed with the way Jarius Cooper performed."
Junior Kallinka Pitt finished just behind Cooper with a time of 13.99 seconds. Pitt's time bettered his personal-best by three-tenths of a second.
The mark qualified Pitt for the regional meet for the second year in a row.
Junior Adam Montague put his name in the UF record books Saturday. His throw of 71.57 meters in the javelin moved him into third in the school's record books.
The throw earned the Australian native a trip back to Tallahassee for the NCAA East Regional in May.
Montague won last year's East Regional in Gainesville.
Redshirt freshman Doug Nelson finished second in the javelin in his debut for the Gators.
His regional qualifying throw of 63.4 meters ranks as the sixth-best in school history.
Shawneise Williams continued her impressive senior season, winning the hammer throw with a mark of 57.66 meters. Williams earned a NCAA regional birth for the second consecutive season.
Her toss was a career-best in the event and moved Williams into tenth place on UF's all-time hammer throw chart. It was the fourth event win of the year for the senior.
"She's been working very hard this season," Holloway said. "Her goal was to just qualify for regionals, and she was able to do that."
Williams is coming of a 2008 indoor season in which she earned All-American honors in the weight throw.
Holloway said that he was happy to get so many athletes qualified for regional competition in the first meet of the outdoor season.
The Gators piled up 11 event wins and nine regional-qualifying marks during the weekend.
"It was a good opening weekend for us," Holloway said. "It's just like indoor, we try and start a little slower and then build as much momentum as we can going toward the conference meet. We're heading in the right direction."
