Pair of Track and Field Gators Earn Weekly Honors
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | Track and Field
Freshman Florida jumper Omar Craddock (Kileen, Texas) and senior four-time NCAA Champion thrower Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) each have earned weekly recognition from the Southeastern Conference for their stellar performances at the 116th Penn Relays Carnival this past weekend, the league offices in Birmingham, Ala., announced Tuesday.
Craddock was named the SEC Male Freshman of the Week for the first time in his career, while Kevkhishvili earned SEC Female Field Athlete of the Week honors for the fourth time this season.
Craddock, who joined the team in January, won the men's triple jump championship at the Penn Relays Carnival, using the third-best mark in school history in that event at 16.24m/53-3.50 on his final jump.
En route to the victory, Craddock defeated some of the nation's top competitors, including the NCAA's No. 1 triple jumper Alphonso Jordan of Georgia Tech and Texas A&M's Zuheir Sharif, who entered the meet ranked No. 2 nationally. He bettered his previous personal-record jump of 16.12m/52-10.75, recorded at the 2010 Pepsi Florida Relays.
Kevkhishvili won the women's shot put event at the Penn Relays Carnival with a mark of 18.17m/59-7.50. That throw went down as the third-best in the history of the Penn Relays and the best throw in the women's shot put at Penn Relays since the 2003 campaign.
Kevkhishvili's victory marked the first Penn Relays women's shot put title in program history. Kevkhishvili, who leads the nation with a season and career-best mark of 18.46m/60-6.75, has won each of the nine contests in which she has participated this season, including a perfect 3-0 mark outdoors this season.
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SEC TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES OF THE WEEK (WEEK 6 – APRIL 27, 2010)
Male Runner of the Week: Barrett Nugent, LSU
Male Field Athlete of the Week: Walter Henning, LSU
Male Freshman of the Week: Omar Craddock, Florida
Female Runner of the Week: Phoebe Wright, Tennessee
Female Field Athlete of the Week: Mariam Kevkhishvili, Florida
Female Freshman of the Week: Cally Macumber, Kentucky
END OF REPORT
