Gators Primed To Host 64th Annual Pepsi Florida Relays
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | Track and Field
A stacked collegiate field and a selection of elite professionals will be on hand this weekend at Percy Beard Track when the No. 4 (men)/15 (women) University of Florida track & field team hosts the 64th annual Pepsi Florida Relays from April 4-5. Typically one of the largest meets in the early stages of the spring, the Pepsi Florida Relays draws more than 3,000 high school and collegiate athletes from across the nation.
A sampling of the 40-plus college teams that will be in attendance includes: Florida, Florida State, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina, UCF, Maryland, Mississippi, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman. The field will also feature a contingent of elite professionals, including 2005 400m hurdles world champion Bershawn Jackson and Xavier Carter, who finished the 2007 season ranked third in the world in the men's 200m.
With two weeks of the outdoor season under their belts, the Gators have piled up an impressive 27 NCAA regional-qualifying marks as a team, with 18 coming on the men's side and nine on the women's. Junior Willie Perry (Lenoir, N.C.) leads the way for the UF men on the track with the nation's best time in the men's 200m (20.76), and the fifth-fastest time in the NCAA in the 100m (10.39), while classmate Adam Montague (Townsville, Australia) currently stands fourth on the NCAA descending order list for the javelin with a top toss of 71.57m/234-10.
Senior Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) has paced the Florida women in the early portion of the outdoor campaign, as she ranks fifth in the country in both the 100m (11.50) and 200m (23.56), while freshman Rebecca Lowe (Vancluse, Australia) has held onto the nation's top spot in the 5,000m for the second week in a row with a mark of 16:19.97 from the season-opening Snowbird Invitational.
Live results from the Pepsi Florida Relays will be available via www.GatorZone.com. More information on the meet, including schedule, history, records and directions, can be found at www.GatorZone.com/trackfield/floridarelays.
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