Florida Gators
NCAA Championships Day 4
Gators Claw to Top 30 Finishes at NCAA Meet
Sunday, June 3, 2001 | Track and Field
Today's final day of the NCAA Track and Field Championships saw some better fortune for the Florida Gators. The men's team got a third place finish from its only competitor in a final event. The women's team saw one of its athletes closely miss a scoring place.
In the end, Florida's men's team finished in 28th place with nine points and the women's team totaled 14 points to finish 20th. Tennessee won the men's team title with 50 points. TCU was second with 49 points. On the women's side. USC and UCLA battled back and forth all day before USC came out on top with 63 points. UCLA was second with 55 points. For the men's team this is the first finish outside the Top 10 since 1998 when the Gators finished 13th. The women's team, however finished 20th after a 30th place finish last year.
The men's 400m final race ended just the way it started. Florida senior Geno White was the third seed going into the finals and finished in the same third position. Auburn's Avard Moncur successfully defended his championship with a time of 44.84. LSU junior Alleyne Francique was second at 45.36 with White finishing third in 45.51. White gave Florida's men's team its final six points of the meet for a total of nine.
"I think I competed as hard as I could today," White said following the race. "I tried to position myself to be even with (Moncur) with 100 meters to go. When we got to that point, he was about five meters ahead. Out of all eight guys out there, there wasn't one of us thinking we couldn't win.
"Overall, I'm happy with [the 400m final]," White continued. "I came out here to compete to the best of my ability today and I did that. I wish we could have done better as a team, but it just didn't happen this weekend."
Florida changed its lineup for the 4x400m relay for today's final. Amber Robinson, normally the leadoff leg ran the third leg with Faith Rein, the normal anchor leg running the first leg. Niki Benjamin remained on the second leg while Nona Allen took the anchor. Together they finished seventh in the final with a time of 3:36.51 after making the championship final as the last qualifier.
School record holder in the hammer throw Jukina Dickerson placed ninth and earned her first-career All-America honor. Dickerson was in sixth place after the first flight, but missed out on a scoring position by less than two feet. The winner was SMU's Florence Ezeh who set a track and NCAA Championship meet record of 216-4.
Erik Newby finished 12th in the triple jump with a mark of 51-4.25. Newby marked his longest jump on his first attempt and then fouled on his second. His third jump was not an improvement and he finished 12th with the distance on his first jump. Newby was a qualifier for the NCAA indoor championship meet before bowing out with fouls on his first three attempts.
Florida ends the competition with All-America winners in nine events. Added to today's awards won by Dickerson, White and the relay team was Yolanda Thompson who was a double All-American in both the long and triple jumps and Maurice Lewis was eighth in the men's long jump. The women's 4x100m relay team of Robinson, Ebony Shotwell, Keyon Soley and Benjamin finished fifth overall. Rickey Harris and Erin Merten earned the honor in the 400m hurdles and 800m respectively.
Today's Florida Finishes
Women's Hammer Throw FINAL
Jukina Dickerson- 195-1 (9th)
Men's Triple Jump FINALS
Erik Newby- 51-4.25 (12th)
Men's 400m FINAL
Geno White- 45.51 (3rd)
Women's 4x400m Relay FINAL
(Faith Rein, Niki Benjamin, Amber Robinson, Nona Allen,)- 3:36.56 (7th)
Final Top 10 Men's Team Scores:
1. Tennessee-50, 2. TCU-49, 3. Baylor-36.5, 4. Stanford-36, 5. LSU-32, 6. Alabama-31, 7. Arkansas-30, 7. UTEP-30, 9. Oregon-27, 10. Auburn-26, 10. Texas A&M-26 ... 28. FLORIDA-9.
Final Women's Team Scores:
1. USC-63, 2. UCLA-55, 3. Arizona-44, 4. Arkansas-31, 5. South Carolina-36, 6. LSU-30, 7. Stanford-27. 8. Rice-26, 9. Brigham Young-24, 10. Harvard-10 ... 20. FLORIDA-14.
End of Report
