Mark Maloney: Determined Jumpers Pull Off Rare Sweep
Monday, February 28, 2011 | Track and Field
By: Mark Maloney
For GatorZone.com
Sure, we knew Florida had great triple jumpers.
But this?
Can one really EXPECT to go 1-2-3 in arguably the toughest collegiate league in the land, the Southeastern Conference?
That's what the Gators did at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., though, sparking the nation's top-ranked team to the men's team championship.
Christian Taylor and fellow junior Will Claye went 1-2 with marks of 56-11 ? and 56-4. Sophomore Omar Craddock took bronze at 54-4 ?, finishing ahead of Saturday's long-jump champion, Tarik Batchelor of Arkansas (54-1 ?).
Claye led through five rounds with a mark of 55-8 ?.
Taylor, the two-time defending champion, came through on his final attempt.
“It's just like my freshman year at (Texas) A&M. I'm always the last jumper and I don't know why I do it to myself,” Taylor said. “But when it gets to that point, you've got nothing to lose and I just put it all out there, backed up a little bit, got a little amped up and just let it go.”
Taylor was actually second-to-last to go this time, as Claye had a chance to unseat his teammate.
“He's known for coming up with a big one on his last jump, so I was ready for that,” Claye said. “I just knew I had to come back after him. But not quite.”
Claye improved his earlier mark by nearly eight inches.
“All the past two weeks, ever since the Tyson Invite, we've been talking about a 1-2-3 sweep,” Craddock said. “We all wanted 17 meters (55-9 ?) but, most importantly, get the points and a 1-2-3 sweep.”
Having such talent on one campus, for practice after practice, helps take the edge off any pressure the Gators might feel in prime-time meets.
“When we were out here today,” Claye said, “that was just like practicing. … We all help each other out at practice, let each other know what we see.”
Taylor is the SEC's first triple jumper to win three straight titles since Mississippi State's Festus Igbinoghene (1988-90).
“It means the world,” Taylor said. “This is my passion. I live for this and I had this in mind. I wrote on my shoe last week '17.35' so I had a goal out there.”
The metric mark on Taylor's winning jump was 17.36.
Saturday, Taylor fouled on five of six attempts in the long jump, placing eighth. Claye placed third.
“It was just motivation,” Taylor said. “You kind of put that behind you. … The triple jump's my passion and I wasn't going to let that interfere with anything. I said all week that we would go 1-2-3 and I really believed it.”
Said Claye: “We were a little disappointed in the long jump, so me and Christian knew we had to come back and redeem ourselves in the triple. We had a chip on our shoulder coming into the triple jump.”
The team title “means everything – that was our whole goal,” Claye said. “Regardless of what we all jumped, we just wanted to go 1-2-3 and get the points for the team.
“Hopefully we'll sweep it at nationals, too.”
