Florida Gators
NCAA Championships
Smith, 4x400m Earn All-America Honors On Final Day At NCAA Championships
Saturday, June 9, 2007 | Men's Track and Field
Freshman Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.) became the second freshman in school history to earn indoor and outdoor All-America honors in the 400m, while the 4x400m of freshman Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.), Smith, junior All-American Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.) and junior Eric Alberter (Benton, Ill.) took eighth to wrap up competition on Saturday before a crowd of 10,165 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the Alex G. Spanos Complex.
Florida State captured the men's team title with 54 points as Florida ended the meet in tied for 34th with nine points.
Smith posted the highest finish by a UF athlete in the outdoor 400m since 2002 after crossing the finish line in 45.74, while the 4x400m relay became the fourth Gator foursome in the last five years to earn All-America honors in the event with a time of 3:06.04.
The youthful Florida squad finished tied for 34th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships despite boasting a squad comprised of nearly 80 percent underclassmen and just one senior.
“I felt like both Calvin and the 4x400m could have done a little better,” Florida men's coach Mike Holloway said. “We've set ourselves up to be successful over the next few years, but it's still disappointing because we had injuries and other things that we out of our control happen this year. We've got to work on our attitude and believe that we can be a great program again. That starts with me because I've got to make our athletes believe that.”
In a fast 400m, Smith crossed the finish line with the third-best time of his career (45.74) to take seventh. With 100m left in the race, Smith was clearly in eighth, but he finished strong to overtake LSU's Siraj Williams (45.77). Less than two tenths of one second separated the fifth-place finisher from the eighth-place finisher.
Smith picked up the ninth outdoor All-America honor in the 400m in school history with all but two coming under Holloway's watch. He also become the second freshman in UF annals to earn 400m All-America honors indoors and outdoors (Tyrone Kemp, 1989) and just the third athlete overall to do so in the same season (Rickey Harris, 2002).
The 4x400m entered the meet ranked ninth in the nation, but still made the eight-team final where the Gators captured eighth in 3:06.04 – UF's second-best time of the season. Smith's second leg moved the Gators up to sixth, while Middleton kept UF there until Northern Iowa (3:04.78) and South Carolina (3:05.03) caught up in the final 200m.
The foursome claimed All-America honors for fourth time in last five years, while the group collected the ninth all-time All-America honor in the event in school history with all but three coming under Holloway's direction.
Middleton picked up the fourth All-America honor of his career with all coming via the indoor or outdoor 4x400m, while it was the third in his freshman campaign for Smith. Alberter and Phillips became the 202nd and 203rd athletes in school history to earn outdoor All-America honors.
Junior Wes Stockbarger (Port Charlotte, Fla.) also picked up All-America honors at the meet after recording the best finish by a Gator in school history in the discus when he took third on Friday with a mark of 60.81m/199-6.
Indoors, Smith claimed honors in the 400m with Stockbarger doing the same in the shot put and Mike Morrison (Willingboro, N.J.) collecting honors in the long jump. In all, Florida had six athletes combine to earn nine All-America honors during the 2007 season.
Men's Team Scoring (though 21 events):
1. Florida State 54; 2. LSU 48; 3. Auburn 34; 4. Tennessee 30.50; 5. Southern California 27; 6. North Carolina 26; 7. Louisville 22; 7. Wisconsin 22; 9. UCLA 21; 10. Oregon 20; 10. Stanford 20; T34. Florida 9.
Men's All-Americans (5 athletes, 3 events):
Calvin Smith – 400m
Wes Stockbarger – Discus
Carlos Phillips, Calvin Smith, Bernard Middleton, Eric Alberter – 4x400m
