Florida Gators
SEC Indoor Championships
Monday, February 28, 2000 | Track and Field
In the final day of action at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, it was the Lady Gator team that provided the fireworks for Florida, capturing three event titles on their way to a second place finish behind the champions from Arkansas. Florida's men finished third, behind Arkansas and LSU, thanks to a big day from its sprint crew.
Top five final scores in the women's competition were sixth-ranked Arkansas 140 in its first ever conference track title. 17th ranked Florida was second with 96 points, followed by seventh-ranked South Carolina with 94, top-ranked LSU (65) and 23rd-ranked Georgia (62). On the men's side, top-ranked Arkansas took home its fourth-straight indoor championship with 168 points, followed by eighth-ranked LSU with 84, fourth-rated Florida (73), 12th-ranked Alabama (63) and No. 23 Tennessee (58) in fifth.
"Obviously, you always want to win this championship," Head women's Coach Tom Jones said following his team's second place finish. "But for what we came in with, with kids banged up and just getting healthy, I thought we did a great job.
"You can't say enough about the performance Tamieka Grizzle and the 800m kids did today. They're the ones that pulled us back into the meet with the 23 points there."
Florida's women brought home the SEC 800m championship for the fifth straight year as Tamieka Grizzle (Bronx, N.Y.) won her first conference title in a national-leading and indoor personal best time of 2:05.95. Grizzle led from the start and stretched her lead to nearly three seconds by the finish as she became the first Gator to stand atop the award stand during this 2000 edition of the SEC Championships. Overall, Florida grabbed 23 points in the event as Nona Allen (Marietta, Ga.) took third in a new personal best of 2:08.25. Freshman Kamille Bratton (Bradenton, Fla.) was fifth in 2:10.40 and sophomore Melissa DeLeon (Trinidad, W.I.) took sixth in 2:11.15.
"The whole team was just great," Grizzle said. "Nona had a personal best by over a second. Melissa DeLeon ran really well and Kamille Bratton came through for us as well. I began my career my freshman year as a Big East Champion in the 800 at Villanova and I'm going to end my career as the SEC Champion at Florida. It feels so good to have accomplished that."
Perhaps the biggest story of the day was Laura Hawkins (Bushnell, Fla.) in the pole vault as the junior from Bushnell, Fla., improved her personal best in the vault six inches on her way to her first SEC title with a clearance of 12-11.75.
My dad told me before I came: 'Win this one for me, Laura,' and I was like 'OK, Dad,'" Hawkins said after the meet. "But I did it. I won one for my dad. I just wish he could have been here to see it. After I cleared 12-11, all I wanted to know was if someone had a cell phone so I could call him."
Hawkins was one of three Gators to score in the event as Megan Westfall (Tallahassee, Fla.) returned for the first time this year since suffering a stress fracture in her foot prior to the third meet of the indoor season. Westfall hit a new personal best of 12-0 to take fifth place. Junior Kelly Greeno (Orlando, Fla.) rounded out the scoring by tying her personal best of 11-8 to take eighth.
Florida earned its final championship of the meet in the 4x400m as Yolanda Brown-Moore (Gainesville, Fla.) took the stick for the final leg in third place before coming all the way back to nip LSU's Claudine Williams at the line by five-hundredths of a second. The winning time of 3:35.40 was an SEC meet record, an automatic qualifying time for the national championships and the second-fastest time in the nation so far. The other three members of the team for Florida were Faith Rein, Amber Robinson and Cara Evans.
For the men, the dream of an SEC Championship didn't come true for the Gators.
"It's a bit disappointing although we did have some good things happen today," Head men's Coach Doug Brown said following the meet. "Team-wise we had some bad breaks with Aaron Armstrong pulling up in the 200m today, Bernard Williams pulling up in the 60m yesterday and David Furman slipping in the high jump and we just didn't have that margin of error to give.
"We've got a little bit of work to do to get ready for nationals here in two weeks and then to get this team ready for outdoors; but I'm very confident we can get everything worked out"
John Capel (Brooksville, Fla.) and Daymon Carroll (Norristown, Pa.) scored the biggest points for the Gators as Capel set a new Florida record of 20.51 in the 200m in a runner-up effort behind Auburn's Coby Miller. His time was more than a quarter of a second faster than his previous best indoors set at last year's indoor national championships. He was joined in the top eight by senior Carroll who automatically qualified for the national championships with a fourth place time of 20.89. Aaron Armstrong (Houston, Texas), the top Gator qualifier in the prelims on Saturday, pulled up midway through the race after aggravating a hamstring injury from earlier this season.
In the 60m dash, Capel was again the top finisher, taking third in a time of 6.66, finishing in front of Armstrong who matched his preliminary time of 6.70 in a fourth place effort and Carroll who finished in sixth in 6.73.
In the long sprints for the women, Brown-Moore ran the third-best time in Florida history indoors with a runner-up time of 52.81 behind South Carolina's Miki Barber to improve her provisional qualifier for the NCAAs. Freshman Faith Rein (Clifton, Va.), in her first indoor championships, finished fifth in 53.67.
Jones got a second big performance out of Ramona Saridakis (West Palm Beach, Fla.) in the 5000m as she scored for the second straight day. After setting a personal best in the 3000m on Saturday, the Gator senior, in her last indoor championships, posted her first-ever time indoors in the 5000m with a fifth place 17:10.54. On the opposite spectrum as far as experience goes, freshman Yolanda Thompson (Alexandria, Va.) performed equally well in her first conference championship, scoring and posting provisional qualifiers in both the long and triple jumps. Thompson bounded her way to a personal best 41-7 on Sunday with her final attempt, taking fifth and moving to third all-time on the Florida indoor charts.
The Gator Distance Medley Relay finished second in a time of 11:39.19 with Grizzle running the final 1600m leg.
Final scorers for the Lady Gators were Emily Carlsten (Warwick, R.I.) in the seventh in the shot put (47-5.75) and Erin Merten (Jacksonville, Fla.) with a sixth place finish in the mile (4:58.21)
For the men, event favorite and SEC leader David Furman (Camden, S.C.) took fifth place in the high jump with a clearance of 6-11.5. The biggest controversy of the championships surrounded his second attempt at 7-2.5 after a seam in the flooring between the sprint lanes and the high jump apron came up as he took off. After a 10 minute delay, officials determined it would not have affected the jump and counted the jump as a miss. On his final jump at the height, Furman cleared the bar only to have it drop off the standards as he was walking off the pads.
In the 400m, Geno White (Arlington, Texas) finished fourth in the 400m with a season's best time of 46.67, moving him ahead of Dennis Mitchell into fifth place on the indoor school list. Senior John Buscema (New Port Richey, Fla.), in the final SEC championships of his career, was the Gator's lone scorer in the 60m hurdles with a final time of 8.04.
Junior Will Mizell (St. Cloud, Fla.) out-jumped his higher profile teammates in the triple jump to take eighth place and move into eighth all-time on the Florida indoor lists with a mark of 49-10.
Senior Brian Woessner (Margate, Fla.) had his best finish ever at the Indoor SEC Championships, taking fifth place in the 35-pound weight throw with his first throw of the competition, a mark of 58-10.75.
Florida will next be in action on Thursday in the final home meet of the year at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center at the Nike Fast Times Invitational.
SEC Indoor Championships Agate
Sunday, February 27, 2000
Randall Tyson Indoor Track Complex
200m banked track
Attendance: 3303
FINAL TEAM SCORES
MEN'S Team Scores after four events
1. Arkansas 168; 2. LSU 84.5; 3. Florida 73; 4. Alabama 63; 5. Tennessee 58; 6. Auburn 50; 7. Georgia 34.5; 8. South Carolina 33.5; 9. Kentucky 24.5; 10. Mississippi State 17.5; 10. Mississippi 17.50
WOMEN'S Team Scores after four events
1. Arkansas 45; 2. Georgia 31; 3. South Carolina 18; 4. Florida 16; 5. Auburn 14. 5; 6. Alabama 8; 7. Kentucky 6.5; 8. LSU 6; 8. Mississippi State 6; 10. Mississippi 4; 11. Tennessee 1
Top eight score in each event. (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1)
FINALS MEN'S WEIGHT THROW
1. Andras Haklits, Georgia @68-2.26; 2. Javier Nieto, LSU 62-3.75; 3. Matthew Kavanagh, Kentucky 62-2.5; 4. Stacy Andrews, Mississippi 59-0.25; 5. Brian Woessner, Florida 58-10.75; 6. Reedus Thurmond, Auburn 58-4.5; 7. Markku Konttinen, Georgia 57-3.75; 8. Lance Jauron, Tennessee 52-6.75.
FINALS MEN'S HIGH JUMP
1. Kenny Evans, Arkansas #7-5; 2. Lavar Miller, Arkansas @7-3.75; 3. Tim Bell, Tennessee 7-2.5; 4. Miguel Pate, Alabama 7-1.75; 5. Rod Newton, Mississippi State 6-11.75; 5. David Furman, Florida 6-11.75; 7. Andrew VanderWagon, Kentucky 6-9.75; 7. Alvin Barton, LSU 6-9.75… 10. Matt Vincent, Florida 6-8… Maurice Lewis, Florida NH
FINALS MEN'S TRIPLE JUMP
1. Melvin Lister, Arkansas #54-5.25; 2. Marcus Thomas, LSU #53-6.25; 3. Lavar Miller, Arkansas @52-3.25; 4. Jason Ward, Arkansas @52-2.75; 5. Vance Clarke, Mississippi State @51-3.5; 6. Traun Smith, LSU 51-1.5; 7. Ian Robertson, Mississippi State 50-6.25; 8. Will Mizell, Florida 49-10… 11. Maurice Lewis, Florida 48-9… 13. David Furman, Florida 46-10.
FINALS MEN'S 60M HURDLES
1. Terrence Trammell, South Carolina #7.57; 2. Ron Bramlett, Alabama #7.69; 3. Eddie Jackson, Arkansas 7.93; 4. Sean Lightfoot, Arkansas 7.98; 5. D'Marcus Brown, Arkansas 8.01; 6. John Buscema, Florida 8.04; 7. Corey Taylor, South Carolina 8.09; 8. Matt Rush, Tennessee 8.10.
FINALS MEN'S 60M DASH
1. Terrence Trammell, South Carolina #6.58; 2. Leonard Scott, Tennessee @6.63; 3. John Capel, Florida @6.66; 4. Aaron Armstrong, Florida @6.70; 5. Coby Miller, Auburn @6.71; 6. Daymon Carroll, Florida 6.73; 7. Pierre Browne, Mississippi State 6.74; 8. Clint Crenshaw, South Carolina 6.81.
FINALS MEN'S 800M
1. James Karanu, Arkansas @1:48.37; 2. Aaron Richberg, Auburn @1:48.57; 3. Nathan Knowles, Arkansas 1:50.72; 4. Chadwick Johnson, Kentucky 1:50.74; 5. Ali Abiola, Florida 1:51.01; 6. Ryan Stanley, Arkansas 1:51.20; 7. Brock Smith, Tennessee 1:51.47; 8. David Johnson, Auburn 1:52.39.
FINALS MEN'S MILE
1. Tim Broe, Alabama #3:59.67; 2. Ryan Travis, Arkansas @4:02.40; 3. Drew Griffin, Georgia @4:03.71; 4. Murray Link, Arkansas @4:04.11; 5. Chris Duncan, Florida @4:05.08; 6. Frans Schimper, LSU 4:07.97; 7. Hunter Spencer, Kentucky 4:09.90; 8. Sharif Karie, Arkansas 4:10.81.
FINALS MEN'S 400M
1. Sanjay Ayre, Auburn #45.92; 2. Lueroy Colquhoun, LSU # 46.29; 3. Derrick Brew, LSU #46.32; 4. Geno White, Florida @46.67; 5. Avard Moncur, Auburn @46.68; 6. Samuel Glover, Arkansas @46.97; 7. Shannon Wheatley, Tennessee 47.15; 8. Cori Loving, Alabama 47.70.
FINALS MEN'S 200M
1. Coby Miller, Auburn #20.50 (SEC Meet Record); 2. John Capel, Florida #20.51; 3. Leonard Scott, Tennessee #20.85; 4. Daymon Carroll, Florida #20.89; 5. Pierre Browne, Mississippi State @20.92; 6. Jeremy Taylor, Alabama, @21.09; 7. Jude Hammond, Kentucky 21.45; 8. Riaan Dempers, South Carolina 21.76; Aaron Armstrong, Florida DNF
FINALS MEN'S 5000M
1. Andrew Begley, Arkansas #13.56.44; 2. Daniel Lincoln, Arkansas @14:06.05; 3. Chris Mutai, Alabama @14:10.70; 4. Alan Dunleavy, Arkansas 14:21.78; 5. Likhaya Dayile, LSU 14:25.85; 6. Jon Jamison, Tennessee 14:39.18; 7. Brad Leach, Tennessee, 14:43.89; 8. Michael Chettle, Alabama 14:48.98… 11. Eddie Ernest-Jones, Florida 15:06.45.
FINALS MEN'S DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY
1. Arkansas (Travis, Landreth, Beasley, Karanu) @ 9:42.74; 2. Alabama @9:44.49; 3. Tennessee @9:45.57; 4. Auburn 9:52.58; 5. Florida (Duncan, Wilkerson, Ortiz, Chambers) 9:57.76; 6. Georgia, 9:58.24; 7. LSU 10:00.40; 8. Kentucky 10:03.61
FINALS MEN'S 4x400M RELAY
1. LSU (Brew, Patterson, Dempers, Colquhoun) @3:08.40; 2. Arkansas @3:10.08; 3. South Carolina 3:11.29; 4. Florida (White, Mann, Carroll, Abiola) 3:11.51; 5. Alabama 3:12.40; 6. Tennessee 3:12.65; 7. Mississippi State 3:15.39; 8. Georgia 3:26.71.
FINALS WOMEN'S SHOT PUT
1. Safiya Ingram, Alabama #52-11; 2. Rhonda Hackett, Georgia @52-0.5; 3. Andrea Pappas, Tennessee @49-1.5; 4. Stacy Martin, Auburn @49-0.75; 5. Lynette Keppeler, South Carolina 48-1.25; 6. Natalie Kinion, South Carolina 48-1.25; 7. Emily Carlsten, Florida 47-5.75; 8. Diane Slinden, Tennessee 47-0.25… 12. Jukina Dickerson, Florida 43-9.5; 13. Merilyn Brown, Florida 43-0.5… 17. Kelly Carvallis, Florida 42-3.25
FINALS WOMEN'S POLE VAULT
1. Laura Hawkins, Florida @12-11.75; 2. Christie Elwin, Tennessee @12-8; 3. Beth Gehring, Tennessee @12-4; 4. Jamie Walker, Arkansas @12-0; 5. Megan Westfall, Florida @12-0; 6. Amanda Ross, Arkansas @12-0; 7. Lori Tvarkunas, South Carolina 11-8; 8. Kelly Greeno, Florida 11-8.
FINALS WOMEN'S TRIPLE JUMP
1. Keisha Spencer, LSU #46-0.5 (SEC Meet Record); 2. Shelly-Ann Gallimor, Auburn @42-8.25; 3. Bianca Rockett, LSU @42-7.5; 4. Rodena Barr, South Carolina @41-10.75; 5. Virginia Miller, Arkansas @41-9.25; 6. Yolanda Thompson, Florida @41-7; 7. Antoinette Wilks, South Carolina @41-3; 8. Falana Greenwell, Kentucky 40-2.25… 15. Michelle Mundey, Florida 37-8.5
FINALS WOMEN'S 60M HURDLES
1. Vonnette Dixon, Auburn #8.00; 2. Ellakisha Williamson, South Carolina #8.17; 3. NeJuan Bakewell, Alabama @8.20; 4. Kyle Shoemake, Arkansas @8.26; 5. Joyce Bates, LSU @8.28; 6. Teneeshia Jones, Mississippi @8.29; 7. Jackie Madison, South Carolina @8.39; 8. April Sams, LSU @8.40.
FINALS WOMEN'S 60M DASH
1. Peta-Gaye Dowdie, LSU #7.28; 2. Vonnette Dixon, Auburn @7.33; 3. Me'Lisa Barber, South Carolina @7.36; 4. Teneeshia Jones, Mississippi @7.38; 5. SaDonna Thornton, LSU @7.40; 6. Heather Sumpter, Tennessee @7.43; 7. Mary Grant, Alabama @7.44; 8. Delilah Dillard, Alabama 7.48.
FINALS WOMEN'S 800M
1. Tamieka Grizzle, Florida #2:05.95; 2. Tawa Babatunde, Arkansas @2:08.16; 3. Nona Allen, Florida @2:08.25; 4. Bobbette Stewart, Alabama @2:09.59; 5. Kamille Bratton, Florida 2:10.40; 6. Melissa DeLeon, Florida 2:11.15; 7. Shannon Hansen, Vanderbilt 2:14.16; 8. Amanda Helberg 2:15.95
FINALS WOMEN'S MILE
1. Tracy Robertson, Arkansas #4:41.12; 2. Jessica Dailey, Arkansas @4:44.71; 3. Larissa Kleinmann, Arkansas @4:49.02; 4. Laura McKinley, Georgia 4:50.24; 5. Christin Wurth, Arkansas 4:53.45; 6. Erin Merten, Florida 4:58.21; 7. Alexandra Knoke, Georgia 4:58.37; 8. Christy Baird, Tennessee 5:07.54.
FINALS WOMEN'S 400M
1. Miki Barber, South Carolina #51.97 (SEC Meet Record); 2. Yolanda Brown-Moore, Florida #52.81; 3. Demetria Washington, South Carolina @53.33; 4. Petagay Gayle, Alabama @53.48; 5. Faith Rein, Florida @ 53.67; 6. Valma Bass, LSU 55.09; 7. Tacita Bass, South Carolina 55.26; 8. Sashanie Simpson, Auburn 55.35.
FINALS WOMEN'S 200M
1. Peta-Gaye Dowdie, LSU #23.09; 2. Me'Lisa Barber, South Carolina #23.47; 3. Mechelle Lewis, South Carolina @23.73; 4. Teneeshia Jones, Mississippi @23.76; 5. Heather Sumpter, Tennessee @23.92; 6. Virginia Miller, Arkansas 24.22; 7. Demetria Washington, South Carolina 24.30; 8. Miki Barber, South Carolina 24.46.
FINALS WOMEN'S 5000M
1. Amy Yoder, Arkansas #16:18.38; 2. Tracy Robertson, Arkansas 16:43.29; 3. Erin Jones, Georgia @16:45.34; 4. Amy Wiseman, Arkansas 17:04.39; 5. Ramona Saridakis, Florida 17:10.54; 6. Beth Van Dusen, Vanderbilt 17:21.07; 7. Bridget Cusak, LSU 17:21.73; 8. Christin Wurth, Arkansas 17:36.81… Eliana Lopez, Florida DNF.
FINALS WOMEN'S DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY
1. Arkansas (Dailey, Brown, Petite, Kleinmann) @11:27.97; 2. Florida (Merten, Thompson, Allen, Grizzle) 11:39.19; 3. Georgia 11:46.28; 4. Tennessee 12:00.41; 5. South Carolina 12:06.58; 6. LSU 12:09.36; 7. Vanderbilt 12:09.65; 8. Auburn 12:20.21
FINALS WOMEN'S 4x400M RELAY
1. Florida (Faith Rein, Cara Evans, Amber Robinson, Yolanda Brown-Moore) #3:35.40 (SEC Meet Record); 2. South Carolina #3:35.45; 3. LSU @3:35.86; 4. Arkansas @3:37.26; 5. Georgia @3:37.59; 6. Alabama @3:39.20; 7. Mississippi State 3:42.94; 8. Mississippi 3:44.86.
#Automatic Qualifier; @ Provisional Qualifier
END OF REPORT
