Florida Gators
SEC Championships
Morrison Wins Heptathlon High Jump On Day One Of SEC Indoors
Saturday, March 1, 2008 | Track and Field
A victory in the high jump propelled University of Florida sophomore Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) to a second-place standing after the first day of the heptathlon at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships at Tyson Track Center on Friday, while senior teammate Kurt Lee (Spring Hill, Fla.) rode two personal bests to the sixth-place position after four events.
Morrison, who is on pace to break his own school record in the event, will enter the final three events of the heptathlon on Saturday with a score of 3,137, and Lee will do so with 2,717 points to his credit. Both of the Gators' totals represent day-one personal bests. Tennessee's Jangy Addy claimed the first-day lead with a tally of 3,421 points, followed by Morrison and South Carolina's Kurt McGill (2,886 points).
“I'm very pleased with both Mike and Kurt today,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “I spoke with (multi-events coach Rana) Reider today, and he told me they were both ready. They proved him right with first-day PRs, so I was very happy to see that.”
Morrison got off to a quick start in the 60m, finishing fifth overall and narrowly missing his personal best with a time of 7.19 to earn 816 points in the afternoon's first event. The effort was .03 shy of the PR that he established at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships, also held at Tyson Track Center. Lee tallied 736 points in the opener with a time of 7.43 that was good for a 12th-place finish.
Morrison continued to pick up momentum as the heptathlon moved to the long jump, collecting 862 points with a runner-up leap of 7.20m/23-7.50. He stood in second place following two events with a total of 1,678. Lee took sixth and earned 727 points in the long jump competition with a career-best mark of 6.63m/21-9, besting his previous PR by 19 centimeters on his final attempt.
Both Gators excelled in the shot put, as Lee and Morrison each established new PRs on their final attempts. The former led the way with a heave of 13.03m/42-9 and the latter added a toss of 12.50m/41-0.25. Lee's output was good for 669 points and fourth place, while Morrison picked up 637 points with a fifth-place finish.
Morrison didn't enter the high jump competition until the bar reached 1.84m/6-0.50, but immediately began to make an impact. He didn't miss an attempt until the bar reached 1.93m/6-4 and bettered his previous PR of 1.94m/6-4.25 on just his fifth jump, when he cleared 1.96m/6-5. Faced with elimination after missing his first two attempts at 2.02m/6-7.50, Morrison cleared the bar on his third leap to capture the victory and 822 points, picking up 57 points on Addy, who topped out at 1.96m/6-5. The performance also marked the first time in Morrison's career that he won the high jump in heptathlon competition, as well as the first time he earned sole possession of first place in an event other than the pole vault.
“When we recruited Mike Morrison, we knew he was a phenomenal athlete,” Holloway said. “The heptathlon isn't something you are great at right away, it's a learning process. He and Coach Reider have a great relationship, and things are starting to click for him. The rest of the team sees how well he and Kurt are doing, and that makes them feel good about what we're going to do this weekend.”
Lee was just a centimeter shy of matching his career best in the high jump, clearing the bar at 1.75m/5-8.75 to finish 10th in the event and add 585 points to his total.
The rest of the Florida men's team will begin competition on Saturday, as will the entire UF women's squad, with the first event slated for 11 a.m. ET. Live results can be found via www.GatorZone.com.
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