Horn, Women's DMR Highlight First Day of Texas A&M Challenge

Friday, January 29

College Station, TX

Florida Gators

Texas A&M Challenge

Horn, Women's DMR Highlight First Day of Texas A&M Challenge

Friday, January 29, 2010 | Track and Field

The Florida women's distance medley relay team clocked its fastest time since 2002 Friday and sophomore multi-event athlete Gray Horn (Waynesfield, Ohio) successfully concluded the first four events of the heptathlon to highlight the Gators' opening day at the Texas A&M Challenge at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

Friday was a light day of competition that included the mutli-events and several distance events. The Texas A&M Challenge continues at 12 p.m. ET Saturday with a full slate of events featuring nine of the nation's top teams from the Big 12 Conference, Pacific-10 Conference and Southeastern Conference. Live video and results will be available through Texas A&M's Web site at www.AggieAthletics.com.

Horn used a personal-record mark in the high jump to cap a successful first day of the heptathlon event, totaling a score of 3,084 – his best first-day score in a collegiate regular-season competition, bettering his score of 3,050 at the SEC/Big 12 Showdown last January in College Station, Texas. He is 361 points behind the heptathlon lead heading into the final three events on Saturday morning.

Horn opened the day by matching his personal-record time of 7.06 to finish third in the 60-meter dash before following that up with a second-place finish in the long jump (7.03m/23-0.75). Horn placed fifth in the shot put before recording a PR in the high jump with a leap of 2.01m/6-7. That bettered his previous best mark of 2.00m/6-6.75, recorded at last season's SEC Indoor Championships.

The women's distance medley relay turned in an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 11:19.67 to place fourth in the event. The quartet of Stacey Johnson (Staffordshire, England), Lanie Whittaker (Miami, Fla.), Charlotte Browning (Pullborough, England) and Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.) clocked the eighth-fastest time in that event in school history and the school's best since the 2002 campaign.

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Men's Heptathlon – 7 p.m. ET (AUTO: 5,675; PROV: 5,325)

Men's Heptathlon 60m (AUTO: 6.60; PROV: 6.71)

3. Gray Horn – 7.06 (861 points)

Men's Heptathlon Long Jump (AUTO: 7.85m; PROV: 7.50m)

2. Gray Horn – 7.03m/23-0.75 (821 points)

Men's Heptathlon Shot Put (AUTO: 19.30m; PROV: 17.75m)

5. Gray Horn – 11.71m/38-5 (589 points)

Men's Heptathlon High Jump (AUTO: 2.24m; PROV: 2.14m)

2. Gray Horn – 2.01m/6-7 (813 points)

Women's Distance Medley Relay – 7:30 p.m. ET (AUTO: 11:05.50; PROV: 11.26.50)

4. Florida – 11:19.67 (S. Johnson, L. Whittaker, C. Browning, K. Shiver) P

MEN'S HEPTATHLON TOTALS (THROUGH FOUR EVENTS)