Florida Gators
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Morrison 5th In Long Jump, UF T12th After Day 2 At NCAA Championships
Friday, June 10, 2005 | Men's Track and Field
Sophomore Mike Morrison (Willingboro, N.J.) finished fifth in the long jump to lead No. 3 Florida to a tie for 12th on the second day of competition Thursday at the NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships before a crowd of 4,517 at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex.
Morrison moved into the fifth in the long jump after uncorking a leap of 7.61m/24-11.75 on his fifth attempt in giving the Gators their first points of the meet. With three events scored on the men's side, Florida is tied for 12th with four points with Texas leading with 15.
Senior Kyle Farmer (Columbia, Md.) moved to the finals in the 200m, junior Shane Stroup (Highland, Md.) advanced to finals in the 1,500m, while Morrison also made the final in the high jump, sophomore Kerron Clement (La Porte, Texas) moved to the semifinals of the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay of junior Sekou Clarke (Kingston, Jamaica), sophomore Reggie Witherspoon (Marietta, Ga.), senior Stefan Pastor (Columbia, Md.) and Clement advanced to finals to lead the Gators.
With two days in the books, the Gators have four athletes in five events set to compete in finals in addition to both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. The Gators also have Clarke and Witherspoon in the 400m semifinals and Clement in the 400m hurdle semifinals.
"We did a great job today of keeping our momentum up after we did well yesterday," Florida coach Mike Holloway said. "Shane Stroup, Kyle Farmer, the 4x400m - they all competed hard and did well today. We nearly batted 1.000 today as far as qualifying people goes and that's a great day in track and field. But, today's over and we've got to focus on tomorrow."
Morrison became the fourth Gator in school history to earn multiple outdoor All-America honors in the long jump after finishing sixth as a freshman in 2004 as he also picked up his eighth career All-America honor. He was sixth after the first three jumps after posting a mark of 7.53m/24-8.50 on his third try. On his fifth attempt, he jumped 7.61m/24-11.75 to move into fifth where he finished to earn four points for Florida and move the Gators into a tie for eighth place.
"I thought Mike did a great job of overcoming adversity after there was a mix-up on his first jump," Holloway said. "He's Mike Morrison and he always competes hard and gives you his best. It was a typical Mike Morrison performance tonight."
Earlier in the day, Morrison came up with a clutch leap in the high jump to advance to Saturday's 4 p.m. final. After passing on 2.05m/6-8.75, Morrison cleared 2.10m/6-10.75 on his second attempt. He missed at 2.14m/7-0.25 on his first two tries before clearing the bar on his third. He was one of 16 athletes to make that height and move on to finals.
After clocking the 10th-best time in the prelims of the 200m (20.74), Farmer improved to 20.44 in the semifinals to make his second final of the meet after already qualifying in the 100m. His time in the semifinals was fourth in his heat and the seventh-best. He'll compete in the finals of the 100m at 8:20 p.m. Friday and the 200m at 7:10 p.m. on Saturday.
Stroup ran another strategic race to qualify in the 1,500m. In fourth with only the bell lap remaining, Stroup worked his way through the pack and moved into second with 200m left and finished his heat with a time of 3:46.79 - just five one-hundredths off his career best. The final of the 1,500m will be contested at 6:25 p.m. on Saturday.
The 4x400m had the third-fastest time in the prelims and finished second in their heat with a mark of 3:03.13. Texas Tech posted the top time of the evening to win the heat in 3:01.69 - the fastest time in the world in 2005. The final will be the last event of the meet on Saturday at 8:35 p.m.
Clement clocked the fastest time in the prelims of the 400m hurdles by nearly half a second to advance to Friday's semifinals at 7:25 p.m. His time was his third-fastest of the year and eclipsed all but three of the remaining semifinalists' season bests.
Freshman Wes Stockbarger (Port Charlotte, Fla.) capped his first season as a Gator by taking 17th in the discus with a mark of 54.17m/177-9 - his second best throw of the season. His toss was two feet and three inches away from advancing him to finals.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships continue through Saturday. Live results can be found at www.ncaasports.com.
Top 10 Standings (Three events scored)
1. Texas 15; 2. Arizona 10; 2. Texas A&M 10; 4. Arkansas 9; 5. Dartmouth 8; 5. Oregon 8; 5. Iowa State 8; 8. Indiana 6; 8. Missouri 6; 10. Arizona State 5; 10. Georgetown 5.
All-Americans
Long Jump - Mike Morrison
Advancing to Finals
100m - Kyle Farmer
200m - Kyle Farmer
1,500m - Shane Stroup
110m hurdles - Josh Walker
High jump - Mike Morrison
4x100m relay - Richard Adu-Bobie, Mike Morrison, Kyle Farmer, Kerron Clement
4x400m relay - Sekou Clarke, Reggie Witherspoon, Stefan Pastor, Kerron Clement
Advancing to Semifinals
400m - Sekou Clarke, Reggie Witherspoon
400m hurdles - Kerron Clement
