Florida Gators
Hurricane Challenge
No. 4/15 T&F Picks Up 14 Regional Marks In Miami, Three In Tallahassee
Sunday, March 30, 2008 | Track and Field
Junior Willie Perry (Lenoir, N.C.) won a pair of individual events and ran on a first-place 4x100m relay to lead the No. 4 (men)/15 (women) University of Florida track & field team to a productive day at the Hurricane Challenge, as the Gators picked up six victories and 14 NCAA regional marks at Cobb Stadium on Saturday.
In addition to Perry's pair of wins, UF got first-place finishes from senior Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) in the women's 100m, senior Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.) in the men's 400m and junior Dennis Martin (Anderson, S.C.) in the men's 400m hurdles, while sophomore Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.), freshman Terrell Wilks (New Haven, Conn.) and sophomore Jeremy Hall (Jacksonville, Fla.) joined Perry on the Gators' victorious 4x100m relay. Twelve of Florida's 14 regional marks on the day came in individual events, spread among nine different athletes, while both the men and women's 4x100m relay squads secured a regional berth on Saturday.
“We had a hard week of training this week, but I was pleased with the way we competed and the amount of regionals mark that we were able to put up,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “I challenged our athletes when we got here and told them that I'd like to see regional marks in every event we competed in this weekend, and we fell short of that, but it was still a good meet. We still have a long way to go, and we're looking forward to a chance to improve next week on our home track.”
Smith, Wilks, Hall and Perry got the UF men off to a strong start on Saturday with a victory in the 4x100m, crossing the line in a regional-qualifying time of 39.94, and Martin and fellow junior Kallinka Pitt (Largo, Fla.) kept the ball rolling less than an hour later when they stepped to the line for the 110m hurdles and posted a pair of regional standards. Pitt crossed the line third with a time of 14.04, while Martin, making his season debut, posted a fourth-place time of 14.24.
Middleton was up next in the men's 400m, and he picked up his first win of the season with a time of 47.35, while freshman LaMarr Davis (Knightdale, N.C.) wasn't far behind in second, clocking in at 47.80 in his collegiate outdoor debut.
Only 20 minutes passed before the Gators notched yet another victory, as Perry stood at the head of a 1-2-3 UF sweep of the men's 100m with a regional-qualifying mark of 10.39 that ranked fifth in the NCAA, and second in the East Region, at the end of the day. Hall captured runner-up honors with a time of 10.42, and Wilks turned in the first regional mark of his career with a time 10.51 to place third. Martin helped keep the momentum going with a win in the 400m hurdles, turning in a time of 53.23 to claim his first-career victory in the event.
The Florida men, however, saved their best for last on Saturday, as Perry was the headliner of an effort in the men's 200m that saw UF take the top five spots with each member of the quintet putting up a time below the NCAA regional standard. Perry's winning time of 20.76 stood as the nation's fastest at the end of the day, and he was followed by Middleton in second (21.17), Hall in third (21.17), Wilks in fourth (21.18) and Smith in fifth (21.34). In just one race, the Gators positioned themselves at the head of the NCAA descending order list with five members on the chart, while no other school in the nation has more than three.
As on the men's side, the women's 4x100m served as a catalyst for good things to come on Saturday, as senior Abigail David (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago), senior Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.), Ealey and senior Zan Joseph (Boynton Beach, Fla.) ran to a second-place time of 44.83 that qualified the group for the NCAA East Regional in May.
Ealey recorded the first of her two individual regional marks on the day in the 100m when she ripped off an NCAA-leading time of 11.50, falling just eighth one-hundredths of a second shy of equaling her personal best. She wrapped up the day with a PR in the 200m, however, clocking in at 23.56 to lay claim to second place on the NCAA descending order list.
T&F Picks Up Three More Regional Marks To Wrap Up Florida State Relays
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A contingent of University of Florida track & field athletes wrapped up its weekend at the Florida State Relays with three NCAA regional marks, as senior Eric Alberter (Belleville, Ill.), outdoor sophomore Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) and sophomore Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) all clinched a return trip to Tallahassee in May for the NCAA East Regional Championships.
The Gators captured a pair of regional-qualifying marks in men's 800m, as both Alberter and Phillips secured spots in the meet with career-best efforts on Saturday. Phillips won the event outdoors for the first time in his career with a personal-best 1:49.64, while Alberter eclipsed his PR by more than four seconds with a time of 1:49.91. Freshman Solomon Taylor (Ocala, Fla.) finished fifth with a time of 1:52.69 to round out a trio of UF athletes in the top five.
A day after coming close to earning a regional berth in the men's javelin, Morrison punched his ticket in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.05m/16-6.75. The effort matched his outdoor career best, and put him at the forefront of a quartet of Gators that finished in the event's top 10. Redshirt freshman Eric Foran (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) tied for fourth behind Morrison with a mark of 4.90m/16-0.75, while senior Kurt Lee (Spring Hill, Fla.) earned a share of sixth (4.75m/15-7) and redshirt freshman Daniel Hamilton (Casselberry, Fla.) took ninth (4.60m/15-1).
Senior Jeremy Miller (West Palm Beach, Fla.) added a second-place finish in the men's 1,500m with a time of 3:57.32, and freshman Anthony Morales (Palm Coast, Fla.) was close on his heels with a third-place mark of 3:57.36.
On the women's side, senior Lorain McKenzie (Clarendon, Jamaica) finished as the top collegian, and second overall, in the 1,500m with a time of 4:30.57, while freshman Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.) crossed the line one spot behind McKenzie with a mark of 4:30.88 and senior Kristen Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) took fifth in 4:32.14.
The Gators will be back in action next weekend when they host the 64th annual Pepsi Relays at Percy Beard Track on Friday and Saturday. Typically one of the largest regular-season meets in the South each year, the action will kick off at 10 a.m. ET on both days with the commencement of the high school field events. Live results will be available via www.GatorZone.com.
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