T&F's Horn, Kevkhishvili Earn SEC Weekly Honors
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 | Track and Field
Florida track and field's Gray Horn (Wapakoneta, Ohio) and Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) each earned weekly honors from the Southeastern Conference, the league offices in Birmingham, Ala., announced Tuesday afternoon.
Horn was named the Male Freshman of the Week, while Kevkhishvili was named the Female Field Athlete of the Week for the second consecutive week. Both earned the honors for their strong performances at the SEC/Big 12 Showdown this past weekend in College Station, Texas, site of the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Kevkhishvili, a junior thrower, has strung together an impressive first three weeks to the season, throwing better than 17 meters, winning the women's shot put and notching an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in each of the team's three meets this year.
This past weekend, Kevkhishvili improved her nation-leading and SEC-leading mark in the event to 56-2/17.12m. She remains the only female shot putter in the nation to have thrown better than 17 meters this season and is one of only two to have automatically punched her ticket to the upcoming NCAA Indoor Championships.
Kevkhishvili won the women's shot put at the SEC/Big 12 Showdown and of her five tosses that landed within the sector were better than 16.40m – well above the NCAA provisional-qualifying standard.
Horn, a freshman heptathlete, recorded the third-best score in school history in the men's heptathlon this weekend at the SEC/Big 12 Showdown with a score of 5,384. That heptathlon score goes down as the 11th-best in the nation so far this season, as he did so in his first collegiate multi-event competition, competing against two ranked teams and three of the top 12 heptathletes in the country so far this season.
Horn had an impressive first day at the event, notching the finest opening day (four events) collegiate debut by a freshman in the men's heptathlon in school history (3,050). He also notched personal-best marks/times in three of the four events contested on the meet's first day.
Horn is one of only two men in the SEC so far this season to have turned in an NCAA provisional-qualifying score in the pentathlon.
The Gators have a week off from competition before sending split squads to the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., and the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa, the weekend of Feb. 13-14.
The University of Florida is home of the 2009 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. For all of the latest information on Gator Track and Field, log on to www.GatorZone.com.
SEC TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES OF THE WEEK – WEEK 3
Female Runner of the Week: Sarah Bowman, Tennessee
Female Field Athlete of the Week: Mariam Kevkhishvili, Florida
Female Freshmen of the Week: Chanelle Price, Tennessee
Male Runner of the Week: Dorian Ulrey, Arkansas
Male Field Athlete of the Week: Michael Ayers, Tennessee
Male Freshman of the Week: Gray Horn, Florida
END OF REPORT
