Martin Wins High Jump, Morrison and Proctor Set Records On Day Two Of SEC Indoors

Saturday, March 1

Fayetteville, AR

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

SEC Championships

Martin Wins High Jump, Morrison and Proctor Set Records On Day Two Of SEC Indoors

Sunday, March 2, 2008 | Track and Field

A men's high jump title and two school records highlighted the second day of the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships for the University of Florida track & field team, where the ninth-ranked Gator men stand in second place with 28 points and the No. 14 UF women rank third with 27 points heading into the final day of competition.

The UF men hold a five-point advantage over Georgia for the second position in the standings after Saturday's competition, while the Gator women are with five of Tennessee for the runner-up spot on the women's table.

“We had a really good day, even though we missed a beat in a few places,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “We qualified well across the board. We've got some of our better events still to come tomorrow, so I'm very excited about where we're at right now.”

Junior Eugene Martin (Gainesville, Fla.) won his first SEC title in the men's high jump with an NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of 2.15m/7-0.50, bettering his previous personal by nearly four inches on his second attempt at the height. The mark, which tied for ninth on Florida's all-time indoor chart, was also the first NCAA provisional standard of Martin's career. His victory marked the Gators' fifth men's high jump crown in the last six years, as well as their 13th all-time title – more than any school in SEC history.

“I feel really good right now,” Martin said. “Hard work has paid off, and it's about time. I just went up there and stayed consistent. Coach Reider has believed that I could do this since he started coaching me, and it feels so good to make it happen.”

Sophomore Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) opened the day with a productive effort in the 60m hurdles, finishing fourth and earning 865 points with a time of 8.48. He kept his momentum going in the pole vault, clearing a winning height of 5.04m/16-6.50 to stockpile another 923 points, and wrapped up the event with a personal-best time of 2:48.71 in the 1,000m to pick up 779 points and capture runner-up honors. When the dust had settled on the heptathlon, Morrison owned a school-record and NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 5,704, surpassing his previous school mark by 89 points (5,625).

“It always feels good to break a record,” Morrison said. “It's difficult when you're putting up one of the top marks in the country and automatically qualifying for the national meet, and you still finish second in your conference. I still feel really good, and I know I left some points out there, so that makes me feel great for nationals.”

Senior Kurt Lee (Spring Hill, Fla.) contributed a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon the Florida effort, breaking the 5,000-point barrier for the first time in his career with a personal-best total of 5,123 points. Sophomore Wondy Pierre-Louis (Naples, Fla.) turned in a career-best 7.66m/25-1.75 in the long jump on Saturday, collecting five points and the second NCAA provisional mark of his career. The leap, which came on his second attempt of the day, moved him into eighth on Florida's all-time indoor list.

Junior Dennis Martin (Anderson, S.C.) provided an explosive start to the day for the UF men, finishing second in his heat of the 60m hurdles prelim with a career-best and NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of 7.79, which moved him into a tie for third on the all-time school list. Junior Kallinka Pitt (Largo, Fla.) stepped up in the next heat and posted a provisional time of his own, clocking in at 7.87 to finish fourth in his heat. Martin automatically qualified for Sunday's final by way of his second-place finish in the first heat, while Pitt's time of 7.87 was the second-fastest among the athletes who didn't finish in the top two of a heat, and thus secured him a spot in Sunday's race.

In the men's 60m prelim, sophomore Jeremy Hall (Jacksonville, Fla.) solidified a spot in Sunday's final with an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 6.73, which was good for second in his heat and sixth overall. Hall is the defending SEC champion in the event, having become the first freshman in more than 30 years to win the crown at the 2007 meet in the Lexington, Ky.

Sophomore Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.) posted a season-best 46.41 in the prelim of the men's 400m, earning an NCAA provisional mark and finishing as the top qualifier for Sunday's final. For an encore, Smith returned to the track less than two hours later for the 200m prelim and qualified for finals in the second position with an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 20.91, strengthening his hold on 10th place in school history with the career-best effort. The men's 800m prelim saw indoor junior Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) secure a finals berth with a third-place finish in heat one, stopping watches at 1:51.38.

“The men had a very good day,” Holloway said. “There were some huge individual performances, and that fired up the team. We always talk about how important it is to have momentum, and when people step up and perform well, you get that momentum.”

Making her season debut for the Florida women on Saturday, sophomore Shara Proctor (The Valley, Anguilla) wasted no time leaving her mark on the SEC Championships, earning runner-up honors in the long jump with a school-record leap of 6.50m/21-4 to add eight points to Florida's total. The mark, which automatically booked Proctor's entry into the NCAA Indoor Championships, surpassed the record of 6.39m/20-11.75 that Keyon Soley set early in the 2001 indoor season. The mark is also the second-longest in the NCAA this season, behind only SEC champion Brittney Reese of Mississippi.

“Shara's performance in the long jump was huge for the team, and I have to give (jumps and multi-events coach) Rana Reider a lot of credit,” Holloway said. “He had a great day, winning the high jump, scoring people in the both long jumps and going two-four in the heptathlon. Rana Reider is doing a great job for us right now.”

The Orange and Blue earned a dozen points in the women's shot put courtesy of a pair of throwers, as sophomore Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) and freshman Keely Medeiros (Blumenau-SC, Brazil) placed second and fifth, respectively. Kevkhishvili earned an NCAA automatic standard with a heave of 17.20m/56-5.25, while Medeiros finished with a top toss of 15.15m/49-8.50.

The UF women were electrifying in the 200m prelim, qualifying seniors Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.) and Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) for Sunday's final to join LSU and Tennessee as the only schools to be represented in the race. Knight posted an NCAA provisional-qualifying and career-best time of 23.40 to move into third on Florida's all-time indoor chart, while Ealey entered the same list in the fifth spot after turning in a personal-best 23.51 to also notch an NCAA provisional.

Ealey kicked off the running events for the UF women earlier in the day with an NCAA provisional time of 7.28 in the prelim of the 60m, coming up just .02 shy of her own school record. She finished second in heat three of the prelim to earn a spot in Sunday afternoon's final.

A pair of Gators picked up NCAA-provisional and career-best times in the women's 400m prelim, as seniors Dominique McLeggan (Weston, Fla.) and Abigail David (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) clocked in at 53.89 and 54.20, respectively. McLeggan's time was good for seventh in the field, which clinched a spot in Sunday's final. UF also qualified a duo for finals in the women's 800m, as senior Lorain McKenzie (Clarendon, Jamaica) finished second in the prelim and junior Shannon Leinert (Wildwood, Mo.) took ninth.

“This group of women has been through a lot in the last year and a half, and they are really trusting what we are doing right now,” Holloway said. “Dom McLeggan had a big day for us, and it was great to send two to the finals of the 200m. This is a tough league in the sprints, and you have to run great if you want to make the finals.”

UF got a boost in the latter stages of the day, as senior Lindsay Sundell (Ft. Salonga, N.Y.) and freshman Rebecca Lowe (Vancluse, Australia) combined to register seven points in the women's 3,000m. Sundell, the Gators' second-leading active scorer at the SEC Indoor Championships, chipped in four points with a fifth-place finish, clocking in at 9:35.84, and Lowe delivered the other three with a personal-best time of 9:37.23 that was good for sixth.

Freshman Daisy Glasser (Atlantic Beach, Fla.) finished 10th in the women's pole vault with a mark of 3.82m/12-6.25 to equal her own UF freshman record in the day's first women's event.

The Gators will return to action on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. ET, when a quarter of UF women are slated to kick off the final day of the SEC Indoor Championships with the 20-pound weight throw. Live results from Fayetteville will be available via www.GatorZone.com.

Men's Team Standings after Day Two

1. Arkansas 46; 2. Florida 28; 3. Georgia 23; 4. Kentucky 21; 5. Tennessee 19; 6. LSU 14; T7. Mississippi 12; T7. Alabama 12; T9. Auburn 10; T9. South Carolina 10.

Women's Team Standings after Day Two

1. Arkansas 58; 2. Tennessee 32; 3. Florida 27; 4. Kentucky 21; 5. Mississippi 17; 6. LSU 14; 7. Alabama 13; 8. Mississippi State 12; 9. South Carolina 1.

Florida SEC Champions

Eugene Martin – Men's high jump

Florida Top-Eight Finishers

Mariam Kevkhishvili – Women's shot put, 2nd

Kurt Lee – Heptathlon, 4th

Keely Medeiros – Women's shot put, 5th

Mike Morrison – Heptathlon, 2nd

Wondy Pierre-Louis – Men's long jump, 5th

Shara Proctor – Women's long jump, 2nd

Florida Men Advancing to Finals (6 athletes, 6 events)

Jose Garcia – Mile

Jeremy Hall – 60m