No. 5/10 T&F Qualifies 16 For NCAA Indoor Championships
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | Track and Field
The fifth-ranked University of Florida men's track & field team has qualified nine athletes in eight events for the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships, while the No. 10 Gator women have qualified seven athletes in seven events for the competition in Fayetteville, Ark., the NCAA committee announced on Monday night.
The fifth-ranked UF men will send junior Beau Burroughs (Tampa, Fla.) in the shot put, junior Dennis Martin (Anderson, S.C.) in the 60m hurdles, junior Willie Perry (Lenoir, N.C.) in the 200m, junior Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) in the 800m, sophomore Jeremy Hall (Jacksonville, Fla.) in the 60m, sophomore Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) in the heptathlon and sophomore Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.) in the 400m. In addition to their individual entries, the Florida men will also be represented in the 4x400m by Phillips, Smith, senior Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.) and junior R.J. Anderson (Big Pine Key, Fla.).
“I'm very excited about the group of athletes we are taking to the NCAA Championships on both sides,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “It's very rewarding to have at least one of our men's athletes qualified in every event from the 800m down, including the 60m hurdles. We have a wide range of athletes going to the meet, and they all have the opportunity to score well.”
The No. 10 Gator women will head to Fayetteville with a contingent of senior Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) in the 60m, senior Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.) in the 200m, senior Lorain McKenzie (Clarendon, Jamaica), senior Shawneise Williams (Archer, Fla.), sophomore Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) in the shot put, sophomore Shara Proctor (The Valley, Anguilla) in the long jump and freshman Liene Karsuma (Riga, Latvia) in the high jump.
“With seven athletes in seven different events on the women's side, we also have a chance to score very well with the group we're taking,” Holloway said. “We're taking four field athletes and three runners, so there's a great balance to our women's team. We're excited about the opportunity, and we look forward to the challenge of competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships.”
Fresh off of the first Southeastern Conference men's shot put title of his career, Burroughs will be making his first appearance at the NCAA indoor meet with the prospect of becoming just the third Gator to ever earn indoor All-America honors in the event. He had never thrown further than 17.10m/56-1.25 indoors before this season, but will head into Fayetteville with a personal best of 18.53m/60-9.50, which ranks sixth in school history.
Martin will also be making his first NCAA Indoor Championships appearance after clocking a career-best 7.79 in the 60m hurdles prelim at the SEC Championships. He will be looking to add to the Gators' total of four All-America honors in the 60m hurdles since 2000, while also seeking to become the first UF athlete to earn All-America status in the event since 2005.
Perry secured his bid to the NCAA meet at last weekend's Arkansas Last Chance Qualifier, and he will return to Fayetteville with the goal of capturing his second All-America accolade in the indoor 200m. He enters the meet with momentum after running a season-best 21.05 on Friday night to clinch his NCAA berth, moving from 21st in the nation to the 13th position. If Perry can finish among at least the top eight Americans at the meet, he will become just the third athlete in school history to register multiple All-America honors in the indoor 200m.
Another first-time NCAA Indoors qualifier, Phillips will enter the meet with the nation's fourth-best time in the 800m, a mark of 1:47.89 that he posted at the Iowa State Classic to move into fourth place on UF's all-time indoor list. He finished seventh in the event at the SEC Championships for the second-straight year, and will look to bring home Florida's 10th All-America honor in the 800m, and its fourth since 2001. He is also slated to run on the Gators' 4x400m relay squad that enters the meet with the fastest time in the world this year.
Hall will return to the NCAA Indoor Championships a year after a bittersweet ninth-place finish in the 60m, as he finished just one one-hundredth of a second out of the finals. Only three men in UF history have earned All-America accolades in the 60m, with the last coming in 2005.
Morrison, who broke his own school record in the heptathlon at the SEC Championships with an NCAA automatic-qualifying score of 5,704, will head into the meet with the nation's seventh-best total. He will enter the competition in Fayetteville with the opportunity to become the first athletes in school history to claim All-America honors in either the heptathlon or the decathlon.
Already an All-American in the 400m from a year ago, Smith will enter the meet with the nation's second-best time in the event with an automatic-qualifying mark of 46.04, which ties for the fifth-fastest time in the world this year. He will look to carry on what has become a strong tradition of UF 400m runners, as an All-America honor in the event this season will make Smith the third UF athlete to earn the accolade in back-to-back seasons, and just the second to do it in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Smith is also scheduled to man a leg of the Gators' top-ranked 4x400m relay squad.
On the women's side, Ealey will be looking for just the Gators' second All-America honor in the 60m as she heads into the meet ranked 11th on the NCAA descending order list. She has claimed ownership of the UF record in the event this season, moving from sixth on the list to the top spot with a time of 7.27 at the Rod McCravy Memorial, then broke the record again two weeks later with an automatic-qualifying time of 7.26 at the Iowa State Classic. Ealey, who is a three-time outdoor All-American, will be making her first appearance at the indoor championships.
Knight is a veteran of the NCAA Indoor Championships, having made the field in each of the previous three seasons and collected an All-America honor in the 4x400m relay in 2005. She has steadily climbed Florida's indoor 200m chart this season, and moved into a tie for second place at the SEC meet with a time of 23.35 that ranks 11th in the nation heading into nationals. She will be looking to bring home the Gators' eighth All-America accolade in the event, and their first since Amber Robinson earned the second of her back-to-back honors in 2002.
McKenzie, who posted NCAA provisional marks as a junior in 2007 but did not gain admission into the field, will be making her first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She will be in search of an All-America honor that will improve the Gators' total in the event to an even dozen and end a three-year All-America drought. She has shaved nearly two seconds off of her previous PR over the course of the season, moving up to seventh on the UF indoor list with a top time of 2:06.00.
Williams, who hadn't won an event in her collegiate career before this season, earned her third weight throw victory of the campaign at the SEC Championships, and clinched a spot in the field at the NCAA Championships last weekend when she recorded a toss of 20.17m/66-2.25 at the Virginia Tech Last Chance. UF has a storied tradition in the event, as its 15 All-America honors in the weight throw are its most of any event, and seven Gators have combined to earn the acclaim 14 times since 2002.
An All-American in the shot put a year ago, Kevkhishvili will look to become the fifth Gator to earn the recognition in consecutive years, and the first since Candice Scott in 2004 and 2005. Her PR has improved by more than three feet this season, and she will enter the meet ranked second in the NCAA with a mark of 17.44m/57-2.75. She picked up momentum with a runner-up finish at the conference meet this season after fouling on all three attempts at the competition as a freshman.
Proctor, the 2007 SEC Indoor Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, will enter her first NCAA Indoor Championships with the sixth-best mark in the long jump with a school-record leap of 6.50m/21-4. The Gator women own five All-America honors in the event in their history, and Proctor, the runner-up at the 2008 SEC Championships, will be looking to secure the first since 2001.
Karsuma's entry into the meet came down to the wire, as she earned her way in at last weekend's Arkansas Last Chance Qualifier with an automatic-qualifying leap of 1.85m/6-0.75. The effort moved Karsuma into a tie for the school record, while improving her own UF freshman record and becoming just the third woman in school history to clear a bar at six feet or higher. Maria Galloni, Karsuma's co-record holder, owns the only two All-America honors that UF has recorded in the event, earning the recognition in both 1990 and 1991.
The NCAA Indoor Championships begin on Friday, March 14, with the heptathlon, and conclude the following evening with the running of the women's 4x400m relay. The action will be broadcast on a tape-delay basis by ESPN2 on Thursday, March 20, from 4-5:30 ET.
Schedule of Florida Athletes Competing (all times Eastern)
Friday, March 14
10:45 a.m. – Heptathlon (Mike Morrison)
1 p.m. – Women's Weight Throw (Shawneise Williams)
3:30 p.m. – Men's Shot Put (Beau Burroughs)
5:30 p.m. – Men's 800m Prelim (Carlos Phillips)
5:45 p.m. – Women's 800m Prelim (Lorain McKenzie)
6:05 p.m. – Men's 60m Hurdles Prelim (Dennis Martin)
6:40 p.m. – Men's 400m Prelim (Calvin Smith)
7:15 p.m. – Men's 60m Prelim (Jeremy Hall)
7:30 p.m. – Women's 60m Prelim (Lakecia Ealey)
8:20 p.m. – Men's 200m Prelim (Willie Perry)
8:35 p.m. – Women's 200m Prelim (Natalie Knight)
9:10 p.m. – Men's 60m Hurdles Final (Dennis Martin)
9:55 p.m. – Men's 200m Final (Willie Perry)
10:05 p.m. – Women's 200m Final (Natalie Knight)
Saturday, March 15
Noon – Heptathlon (Mike Morrison)
5:30 p.m. – Women's Shot Put (Mariam Kevkhishvili)
7:35 p.m. – Men's 800m Final (Carlos Phillips)
7:45 p.m. – Women's 800m Final (Lorain McKenzie)
7:55 p.m. – Men's 400m Final (Calvin Smith)
8:15 p.m. – Men's 60m Final (Jeremy Hall)
8:25 p.m. – Women's 60m Final (Lakecia Ealey)
9:05 p.m. – Men's 4x400m Relay (R.J. Anderson, Bernard Middleton, Carlos Phillips, Calvin Smith)
- UF -
