Gators Earn Three End-of-Season SEC Awards
Monday, May 24, 2010 | Track and Field
The University of Florida track and field teams have garnered three end-of-season honors from the Southeastern Conference, the league offices in Birmingham, Ala., announced Monday afternoon.
Florida head coach Mike Holloway was named the SEC Men's Head Coach of the Year, senior thrower Mariam Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) was named the SEC Women's Field Athlete of the Year and sophomore jumper Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.) was named the SEC Men's Field Athlete of the Year.
For Holloway, the recognition is just one of a handful of awards for the leader of the UF track and field program in the 2010 campaign. He was named the SEC Men's Head Coach of the Year after leading the Florida men's team to its first SEC Outdoor Championship since the 1987 season. Holloway was the 2010 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Men's Indoor Head Coach of the Year. He was the 2010 USTFCCCA Indoor South Region Men's and Women's Head Coach of the Year, as well as the 2010 SEC Indoor Women's Head Coach of the Year.
Kevkhishvili, a four-time NCAA Champion and a seven-time All-America selection, won her third SEC outdoor women's shot put competition in the last four years, claiming the crown at the 2010 SEC Outdoor Championships in Knoxville, Tenn., two weeks ago. She is the national leader in the women's shot put with a career-best mark of 18.46m/60-6.75, which is the second-best throw in school history.
Kevkhishvili has gone undefeated against all competition this season, including a perfect 5-for-5 during the outdoor season. She directed a 1-2-6 finish in the women's shot put event at the SEC Outdoor Championships. She is a five-time SEC Female Field Athlete of the Week this season, including four times outdoors - April 6, April 20, April 27 and May 12. Kevkhishvili is on the watch list for The Bowerman, track and field's highest honor as awarded by the USTFCCCA.
Taylor was second in the individual point standings at the 2010 SEC Outdoor Championships, winning the men's triple jump, placing second in the long jump and running the third leg of the winning 4x400-meter relay team. Leads the nation and ranks 16th in the world in the men's triple jump with a mark of 16.68m/54-8.75, while ranking second in the nation and seventh in the world in the men's long jump with a mark of 8.19m/26-10.50.
Taylor won the men's triple jump at the SEC Outdoor Championships, becoming the first Florida athlete to do so since Mike Sharpe in 1976. He is part of UF's world-leading 4x400-meter relay team that, at the Pepsi Florida Relays, recorded a time of 3:00.31. At the SEC Outdoor Championships, he was one of only two athletes at the SEC Outdoor Championships to place in the top two of two different men's field events (Florida teammate Kemal Mesic was the other.)
Florida returns to action May 27-29, when it travels to Greensboro, N.C., to participate in the NCAA Preliminary Rounds hosted by North Carolina A&T University at its Irwin Belk Track.
For all of the latest information on Florida track and field, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/trackfield or, for up-to-the-minute information, follow the team's Twitter account @GZTrackField or www.twitter.com/GZTrackField.
2010 SEC MEN'S OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD AWARDS
Men's Runner of the Year: Barnabas Kirui, Ole Miss
Men's Field Athlete of the Year: Christian Taylor, Florida
Men's Freshman Runner of the Year: Kirani James, Alabama
Men's Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Ricky Robertson, Ole Miss
Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Matt Maloney, Tennessee
Men's Head Coach of the Year: Mike Holloway, Florida
2010 SEC WOMEN'S OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD AWARDS
Women's Runner of the Year: Sheniqua Ferguson, Auburn
Women's Field Athlete of the Year: Mariam Kevkhishvili, Florida
Women's Freshman Runner of the Year: Takeia Pinckney, LSU
Women's Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Maya Pressley, Auburn
Women's Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Phoebe Wright, Tennessee
Women's Head Coach of the Year: Dennis Shaver, LSU
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