Florida Gators
NCAA Championships
T&F Charges To Pair Of Top-10 Finishes At NCAA Indoor Championships
Sunday, March 16, 2008 | Track and Field
Sophomore Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) won her first NCAA title in the women's shot put and sophomore Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) earned the school's first multi-event All-America honor on Saturday to lead the University of Florida track & field team to an eighth-place finish on the men's side and a tie for eighth on the women's at the NCAA Indoor Championships at Tyson Track Center. The sixth-ranked UF men and the No. 10 UF women both scored 19 points over the course of the two-day competition.
In its first year as a combined program, UF turned in a synergistic performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships. In addition to both finishing with at least a share of eighth place with 19 points, both squads finished in the top 10 for the first time since posting runner-up showings in 2005, while the effort was the 14th all-time top-10 finish for both the Florida men and women. With 10 All-America honors on the men's side and four on the women's, the Gators also turned in the most accolades for each team since the 2005 season.
“All year long, we've talked about establishing ourselves as one of the top 10 programs in the nation, and we came in here and did that,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “By no means are we satisfied, and we understand that we have a lot of work to do, both as a coaching staff and a team. We're pleased with the progress we've made this year, and with the direction that the program is headed, but this is just a step in the right direction toward where we ultimately want to be.”
Kevkhishvili wasted no time making history in the women's shot put, registering a school-record and national title-winning toss of 17.83m/58-6 on her second attempt to capture the Gators' first-ever NCAA crown in the event on either the men's or women's sides, and their first individual title in any event since 2005. She eclipsed the school record of Olympian and two-time All-American Kim Barrett by three quarters of an inch (17.81m/58-5.25) en route to earning her second-straight indoor All-America honor, and her third overall, in the shot put, and joins Barrett and two-time United States shot put champion Kristin Heaston as the only three Gators to garner All-America status in both their freshman and sophomore seasons. She is the 17th women's athlete to win an individual national title for UF, clinching the Gators' 15th all-time championship, and her All-America honor is the 13th women's shot put accolade in school history.
The runner-up mark in the event measured 17.64m/57-10.50, meaning that with marks of 17.83m/58-6 on her second attempt and 17.72m/58-1.75 on her fifth heave, Kevkhishvili produced a pair of marks that could have carried her to the national title. Her winning mark was the longest in the nation during the college indoor season.
“Mariam deserves everything that she got today,” Florida throws coach Steve Lemke said. “She'd been throwing great in practice all week and we felt like she was bound for great things today. She beat a really good field and did something that no one at Florida had ever done, so this was a special moment for Mariam.”
The lone UF women's runner to compete on Saturday night, senior Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) broke her own school record in the 60m for the second-straight night with a time of 7.23, good for a fourth-place finish. The showing earned Ealey the first indoor All-America honor, the first individual accolade and the fourth overall merit of her career. The performance also entered Ealey into select company in the UF annals, as became just the second 60m All-American in school history, adding on to Niki Benjamin's runner-up performance at the 2001 meet. Benjamin clocked in at a time of 7.31 in that race, establishing a school record that Ealey has now surpassed four times this season.
“Lakecia Ealey is a testament to what happens when you work hard,” Holloway said. “She comes to practice every day and works. She had a goal to be in the top-five, and she got the job done. She did an awesome job tonight.”
On the men's side, Morrison made a second-day charge in the heptathlon to finish third and break his own UF record with a score of 5,792 points, 2,661 of which came in just three events on Saturday. Morrison is the first multi-event specialist in Florida history – men's or women's – to earn All-America honors, and he is the first Gator to score in a multi-event competition at a national collegiate meet since Heidi Hertz won the pentathlon at the 1976 AIAW Championships.
“It feels really good to come out and compete like that,” Morrison said. “I knew what I had to do coming into the meet, and I knew that I left a lot of points out there are the conference meet. I got some of them back here, but I feel like I still missed some, and there's still room for improvement. I'm just thrilled right now, just really happy.”
After nearly matching his first-day career best on Friday, Morrison didn't miss a beat in Saturday's opening heptathlon event, the 60m hurdles, turning in a time of 8.39 to pick up 886 points right out of the gates. The mark was nearly a full tenth of a second better than the 60m hurdles time of 8.48 that he posted at the Southeastern Conference Championships, giving him a seventh-place total of 4,017 after five events, but placing him 15 points ahead of the personal-best pace he set at the conference meet.
After a break of more than two hours as the pole vault competition progressed to a desirable height, Morrison needed just four jumps to match his heptathlon PR of 5.15m/16-10.75, winning the event and collecting 957 points. The effort moved him into fourth place – an improvement of three spots – with a total of 4,974 points, just a dozen out of third place. In equaling his PR, Morrison cleared his best height in a heptathlon competition since the 2007 SEC Championships in Lexington, Ky.
“Clearing 5.15m in the vault was huge,” Morrison said. “That really put me in a good position. I had some really good attempts at the next bar, and that's something that I can continue to shoot for. That being said, the vault was the key to what I did today.”
With All-America honors all but assured heading into the 1,000m, Morrison put an exclamation point on the heptathlon with a personal-best time of 2:45.05, finishing 11th in the event but surpassing his previous PR by nearly four seconds. He scored 818 points in the event to finish with a school record total of 5,792, marking the second time in two weeks that he has bettered his own UF standard in the event at the Tyson Track Center.
Over the course of the two-day competition, Morrison recorded career bests in the 60m (7.13), long jump (7.31m/23-11.75) and 1,000m (2:45.05), while also equaling his PR in the pole vault with Saturday's mark of 5.15m/16-10.75. He eclipsed his previous school record by 88 points – nearly double the amount by which he broke his initial record at this year's SEC Championships.
“Mike turned the corner today towards becoming one of the best multi-eventers in the country,” Florida multi-events coach Rana Reider said. “He was solid and level all week, not a whole lot of ups and downs. Mike is one of the toughest people I've been around, and I couldn't be more proud of him.”
About an hour after Kevkhishvili's victorious effort in the shot put, Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.) gave the Gators a trio of sophomore All-Americans on the day with a fifth-place finish in the men's 400m, clocking in at a time of 46.44. The All-America accolade is the second in as many years for Smith, who improved on a seventh-place showing from a year ago to claim the Gators' ninth-ever All-America honor in the event. He is the third Florida athlete to receive All-America recognition in the 400m in consecutive seasons, joining Tyrone Kemp, Rickey Harris and indoor 400m world-record holder Kerron Clement, and secures a place next to Harris as the only two Gators to earn All-America honors in the event in both their freshman and sophomore seasons.
Smith was back on the track again nearly two hours later, earning his second All-America honor of the meet as part of the Gators' fifth-place 4x400m relay along with junior R.J. Anderson (Big Pine Key, Fla.), freshman LaMarr Davis (Knightdale, N.C.) and senior Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.). The quartet posted a time of 3:07.34 to move into 10th on UF's all-time chart and gain All-America status in the event for the 12th time in school history. Both Anderson and Davis captured the first All-America honors of their careers in the effort, while Smith and Middleton both grabbed their team-leading fifth honors. The Orange and Blue has now garnered All-America recognition in the men's 4x400m relay in five of the last six years, as well as seven of the last nine.
“We find success when we focus on the Gators,” Holloway said. “We know what we're capable of when we compete hard, and we did that here. That was the theme all week, and we did a terrific job. We're not going to act like we're the world champions, but we're pleased with what we saw here this weekend and will look to build on it.”
The Gators will kick off the 2008 outdoor season next weekend when they make the short venture to Tallahassee for the Snowbird Invitational, hosted by Florida State from March 21-22.
Men's Team Top-10
1. Arizona State 44; 2. Florida State 41; 3. Texas 34; 4. LSU 33; 5. Tennessee 26; 6. Arkansas 24; 7. Stanford 23; 8. Florida 19; 9. Northern Iowa 18; 10. Texas A&M 17.
Women's Team Top-10
1. Arizona State 51; 2. LSU 43; 3. Michigan 39; 4. Texas 35; 5. Stanford 32; 6. Florida State 28; 7. Texas A&M 23; T8. Florida 19; T8. Tennessee 19; T10. Virginia Tech 18; T10. Texas Tech 18; T10. Kansas 18.
Florida NCAA Champions
Mariam Kevkhishvili – women's shot put
Florida All-Americans
Beau Burroughs – men's shot put
Lakecia Ealey – women's 60m
Jeremy Hall – men's 60m
Mariam Kevkhishvili – women's shot put
Natalie Knight – women's 200m
Mike Morrison - heptathlon
Willie Perry – men's 200m
Carlos Phillips – men's 800m
Calvin Smith – men's 400m
Shawneise Williams – women's weight throw
Anderson, Davis, Middleton, Smith – men's 4x400m relay
Florida Results
Men's 60m
9. Jeremy Hall – 6.67
Men's 200m
4. Willie Perry – 20.73
Men's 400m
5. Calvin Smith – 46.44
Men's 800m
11. Carlos Phillips – 1:50.58
Men's 60m Hurdles
10. Dennis Martin – 7.78
Men's 4x400m
5. Anderson, Davis, Middleton, Smith – 3:07.34
Men's Shot Put
10. Beau Burroughs – 17.95m/58-10.75
Heptathlon
3. Mike Morrison – 5,792 points*
Women's 60m
4. Lakecia Ealey – 7.23*
Women's 200m
6. Natalie Knight – 23.14*
Women's 800m
11. Lorain McKenzie – 2:07.87
Women's High Jump
T18. Liene Karsuma – 1.75m/5-8.75
Women's Long Jump
15. Shara Proctor – 6.05m/19-10.25
Women's Shot Put
1. Mariam Kevkhishvili – 17.83m/58-6*
Women's Weight Throw
8. Shawneise Williams – 20.34m/66-8.75
* - denotes school record
- UF -
