Participating Coaches Preview Tom Jones Memorial
Friday, January 23, 2009 | Track and Field
The University of Florida track and field teams play host to the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on Saturday. Participating coaches Mike Holloway (Florida), Bob Braman (Florida State) and Caryl Smith Gilbert (UCF) sat down with GatorZone.com to preview the meet.
Florida head coach Mike Holloway
GatorZone.com: How special is it to be hosting a meet in memory of Coach Tom Jones?
Mike Holloway: The meet is in memory of Tom Jones, who was the coach here for many years. He was a friend and mentor to a lot of people, myself included, and we're excited about the meet this weekend.
GatorZone.com: What are your thoughts about the meet this weekend?
Mike Holloway: We've got some very good teams coming in this weekend. We talked to our team about putting their best foot forward and putting on a good show for our fans that are coming out this weekend. We're excited about it. We've also got some great post-collegians coming in to compete this weekend, so it's going to be a great competition all the way around.
GatorZone.com: How much of an advantage is it to be competing at home?
Mike Holloway: Anytime you can sleep in your own beds, eat your regular foods and hang out with your friends before the competition, it's going to be a help. I think when you can keep things as close to normal as you can, you are always going to compete better. Having the home fans here and a lot of parents coming to town for the meet, I think it's going to help our athletes a lot.
GatorZone.com: What did you see from your team last weekend?
Mike Holloway: I was extremely pleased with what I saw from our team last weekend in Kentucky. Across the board, in every event, we went out there, were very professional, lined up and got the job done.
Florida State head coach Bob Braman
GatorZone.com: What are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Bob Braman: The men's team is taking only a small group to the Tom Jones meet. Gonzalo Barroihet in the hurdles, long jump, high jump and shot put is in a mini mult-prep situation, while Tim Reen is looking to get the NCAA high jump mark and Matt Wernke the weight throw mark. The women's team is taking a large group, but Kim Williams and Coach Harvey's top-five distance aces are not scheduled to compete. Teona Rodgers is looking to improve her hurdle provisional mark to auto as is Tiara Swanagan in the triple jump. Coach Richards' sprint crew will put together a solid 4x4, but they, too, are looking down the road to go for a big one.
GatorZone.com: What are your favorite memories of Tom Jones?
Bob Braman: Tom Jones was my high school coach my senior year at Tampa Chamberlain, so my memories of him are many. I was Tom's PE assistant and helped run his class while he was trying to find ways to win those famous dual meets. Tom was a wonderful mentor for me throughout my career and I learned a lot from him. What people don't know about Tom is that he was a very good distance coach as well. He was just as passionate about cross country when it was in-season as he was about track. But, I believe that Tom helped me learn to respect the sport, take it seriously and be as good as I was capable of being.
GatorZone.com: What did you see from your team last weekend?
Bob Braman: Last weekend was a really good first weekend on both sides. We didn't run a very large group, but we had some great openers. Kim Williams obviously had a jaw-dropper and Tiara Swanagan just missed a couple huge jumps and still managed a 13.18. Teona Rodgers had a nice 8.30 opener in the prelims and is way ahead of us from last year. A pleasant surprise for us was Ngonidzashe Makusha's opener of 6.68 and Maurice Mitchell's 6.73 as well. Both are ahead of schedule for us. We have a long way to go and much work to do. February will tell us much about our chances in March.
UCF head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert
GatorZone.com: What are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Caryl Smith Gilbert: I am most looking forward to the team line-up and compete against some of the best athletes in the country. I expect everyone to give 100 percent and I would like to see more personal bests, school records and NCAA qualifying marks.
GatorZone.com: What athletes and events from your team will fans most enjoy watching this weekend?
Caryl Smith Gilbert: I think Tiki James and Jackie Coward in the hurdles. Both earned provisional marks this past weekend in the 60 hurdles and Tiki was the Conference USA Athlete of the Week this past week.
GatorZone.com: What are your favorite memories of Tom Jones?
Caryl Smith Gilbert: My favorite memory of Coach Jones is that he was always a very positive person. He gave me encouragement at EVERY meet and told me I was doing a good job with my athletes. Plus, he is a UCLA Bruin like me!
GatorZone.com: What did you see from your team last weekend?
Caryl Smith Gilbert: Last weekend at Kentucky we had a solid showing. I told the team this week that one of their goals should be to improve from last week.
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