Florida Gators
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Gators Advance at NCAA Outdoor T&F Championship
Friday, June 11, 2004 | Track and Field
On the first full day of competition at the 2004 NCAA Track and Field Championship, the Gator men's and women's track and field teams advanced seven athletes and two relay teams, including Josh Walker, who equaled his school record in the 110m hurdles. The Gator men are tied for 11th with three points, while the women's team has not competed in a final.
Walker tied his record in the 110m hurdles, winning his heat of the event to automatically qualify for Friday's final. His time of 13.42 was also the fastest time in the qualifying round.
Kyle Farmer, Mike Morrison, Sekou Clarke and Kerron Clement combined to finish second in their heat of the 4x100m relay to automatically qualify for the finals. Their time of 39.18 equaled the second fastest time in the event this season for the Gators.
Clarke, Rickey Harris, Dwight Ruff and Clement combined to finish third in their heat and eighth overall in the preliminaries of the 4x400m relay, crossing the finish line in 3:04.50 to advance to Saturday's final.
Steve Zieminski automatically qualified for the finals in the 3,000m steeplechase with a fifth-place finish in his heat in 8:53.04. Daniel Parker also qualified, finishing 14th overall in 9:02.23. Moise Joseph finished third in his heat of the 800m preliminaries, crossing the finish line in 1:48.03, to grab the ninth and final qualifying spot for Saturday's final.
Farmer finished fourth in his heat of the 200m dash in 20.64, but finished 13th overall to miss making the finals.
Morrison pulled triple duty Thursday, first competing in the 4x100m relay, then moving to the final of the long jump later in the afternoon. After taking two jumps in his flight and reaching 7.88m/25-10.25, Morrison passed on his third attempt to go to the high jump, which began just 30 minutes after the long jump. He cleared 2.14m/7-00.25 to finish tied for 15th overall in the prelims and went back to the finals of the long jump, where he finished sixth with a best jump of 7.88m/25-10.25 to earn his third All-America honor of 2004. That mark is also the eighth-best mark in school history.
Alex Harris finished tied for 17th in the long jump with a mark of 7.46m/24-5.75. In the shot put preliminaries, Ryan McIntyre recorded fouls on all three attempts.
"I thought we had a chance to get a lot of things done today, get athletes qualified, and for the most part we did that," said Florida men's head coach Mike Holloway. "We've got to come back tomorrow and keep doing what we've been doing. We can't concern ourselves with what happened today. It's over - we've got to move on and do what we do."
In women's hammer throw qualifying, Candice Scott and Jukina Dickerson were two of three athletes to automatically qualify for the finals by virtue of recording marks of at least 64.00m/210-0. Scott was the top overall qualifier with her mark of 65.68m/215-6 on her first and only throw of the prelims. Dickerson finished third with her mark of 64.05m/210-2, which came on her final throw of the qualifying round. LaQuanda Cotten finished 18th with her best throw of 57.06m/187-02 but will not advance to Saturday's final.
Kim Barrett was Florida's only qualifier in the shot put, advancing with a fifth-place throw of 16.82m/55-02.25, which came on her second toss of the preliminaries. Scott and Karen Freberg just missed qualifying for the finals, finishing 13th and 14th, respectively. Scott threw 16.11m/52-10.25, while Freberg reached 15.96m/52-04.50. Cotten finished 28th with a mark of 14.25m/46-09.00.
In the final qualifying event of the night for the women, the team of Tiandra Ponteen, Kamille Bratton, Andrea Bliss and Novlene Williams finished 11th overall in 3:33.29 to miss advancing to the finals.
Kamille Bratton finished 12th in the 800m preliminaries, clocking a time of 2:06.55, and will not advance to the finals. In the 100m hurdles preliminary, which took a blazing time of at least 12.96 just to advance to finals, Andrea Bliss did not get a good start out of the blocks, fell on the first hurdle and did not finish the race.
"We hit some bumps in the road. Our team has been through a lot emotionally and physically. Bliss was courageous coming back from falling in the hurdles," said UF women's head coach Tom Jones. "We've got to come back and make some things happen in the 400m, the hammer, the shot put and the discus. We've had a very good year, but it's not over yet. We've got some very talented athletes competing tomorrow."
Competition continues Friday for the Gators with finals in the men's and women's discus, women's high jump, men's 4x100m relay and men's 110m hurdles. The preliminaries of the men's and women's 400m hurdles will also be run Friday.
UF ALL-AMERICANS
Mike Morrison - long jump, sixth (7.85m/25-9.25)
UF ADVANCING ATHLETES
Men:
- Moise Joseph - 800m
- Daniel Parker - 3,000m steeplechase
- Josh Walker - 110m hurdles
- Steve Zieminski - 3,000m steeplechase
- 4x100m relay
- 4x400m relay
Women
