Gators Set for 67th Pepsi Florida Relays
Thursday, March 31, 2011 | Track and Field
The University of Florida track and field teams are set to play host to their premier event of the season – the 67th Pepsi Florida Relays – this Friday and Saturday at Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium.
Gates open at 9 a.m. ET each day for the meet's 10 a.m. ET start on both Friday and Saturday. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children and $1 for UF students with a valid UF student ID per day. Live results for the meet may be found at www.deltatiming.com. Complete coverage of the Pepsi Florida Relays can be found at www.gatorzone.com/trackfield/floridarelays.
“I am very excited about the Florida Relays; it's always a great competition,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “It's the 67th running of the event and it is always a pretty special thing. The big thing for us is that we just kind of want to get our feet wet and get the outdoor season kicked off. We have very high expectations of ourselves and what we want to get done this year. This weekend will be a great indication of that because we've got great athletes across the board. We have some great teams coming down and some great post-collegiate athletes.”
The Florida men's track and field team is ranked No. 1 in the nation according to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Preseason Outdoor Rankings. The Gator men are the two-time defending NCAA Indoor Champions, coming off their most recent victory on March 12 in College Station, Texas.
Florida is returning NCAA Outdoor Champions in three different events from a year ago. Junior sprinter Jeff Demps (Winter Garden, Fla.) is the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Champion in the 100-meter dash, and also the NCAA 60-meter Champion indoors in both 2010 and 2011. Junior jumper Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.), who has captured three NCAA titles, was the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Champion in the men's triple jump. The Florida men's 4x100-meter relay team also is the two-time defending NCAA Champion.
The Pepsi Florida Relays serve as the outdoor season opener for many of Florida's athletes.
Three Gators are up for consideration for The Bowerman - track and field's highest honor. Will Claye (Phoenix, Ariz.), Demps and Taylor all are listed on the latest The Bowerman Watch List.
Sophomore thrower Jeremy Postin (Auburndale, Fla.) shattered his own school record in the men's hammer throw at the UCF Invitational last weekend. He turned in a lifetime personal-best toss of 64.70m/212-3 to become the first person in school history to throw better than 212-3 in the men's hammer throw.
Freshman middle-distance runner Matt Mizereck (Tallahassee, Fla.) opened his collegiate career by winning two events (men's 800m and men's 1,500m) at the UCF Invitational last weekend in Orlando.
The Florida Relays began more than 70 years ago in 1939, thanks to the vision and creativeness of the Gators' legendary head track and field coach Percy Beard. Since that first meet 72 years ago, the Pepsi Florida Relays have grown in epic proportions from the small regional competitions on April Fool's Day that featured 209 competitors, to one of the nation's premier track and field meets.
The Florida Relays were established after the Southern Relays, held at Georgia Tech, were discontinued in the 1930s. Coach Beard was forced to create a new meet or travel hundreds of miles north to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays. Beard's coaching peers throughout the southeast were receptive to the idea and the Florida Relays were born.
Since its inception, the Florida Relays has grown in both stature and size. Previously regarded nationally as the first major event of the collegiate outdoor track and field season, the Relays once swelled from a one-day inaugural event featuring slightly more than 200 athletes to a four-day extravaganza that attracted more than 3,000 athletes from the high school, collegiate and international ranks.
Starting with the 2007 Florida Relays, athletes have the benefit of running on a completely renovated track. More than $650,000 was poured into a new Mondo surface, which included installing an additional 30 feet of track space at the southwest corner of the stadium.
Since 1959, Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium has served as the outdoor home of the Gator track and field program. Recognized as one of the finest collegiate track and field facilities in the nation, the complex provides permanent grandstand seating for 4,500 in addition to increased bleacher seating for special events.
The facility is named after former Gator head coach Percy Beard (1937-63), a world record-holder and Olympian in the high hurdles and a member of the prestigious USA Track and Field Hall of Fame.
For all of the latest information on Florida track and field, log on to www.GatorZone.com/trackfield or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow the team's Twitter account @GZTrackField.
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS (APRIL 1-2, 2011 :: GAINESVILLE, FLA.)
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2011
Women's 100m Hurdles – 12:05 p.m. ET
· Katrina Dekrey
· Brittany Harrell
· Lorraine Graham
· Paige Morton
· Ugonna Ndu
Men's 110m Hurdles – 12:45 p.m. ET
· Jarius Cooper
· Eddie Lovett
Women's 400m – 1:05 p.m. ET
· Ebony Eutsey
· Michelle Stegall
· Lanie Whittaker
Men's 400m – 1:25 p.m. ET
· Christian Taylor
Men's Long Jump – 2 p.m. ET
· Will Claye
· Gray Horn
· Josh Pederson
Women's Discus – 2 p.m. ET
· Kaitlin Davis
Women's 100m – 2:25 p.m. ET
· Darshay Davis
Men's 100m – 2:40 p.m. ET
· Jeff Demps
· Leonardo Seymore
· Terrell Wilks
Women's 800m – 2:55 p.m. ET
· Shelby Hayes
Women's Pole Vault – 3 p.m. ET
· Daisy Glasser
· Caitlin Schuessler
· Morgan Schurschel
· Claire Spurling
Men's 800m – 3:20 p.m. ET
· Dumisani Hlaselo
· Luc Lawrence
· John Mitchell
· Sean Obinwa
· Daniel Wehunt
Women's 400m Hurdles – 3:45 p.m. ET
· Amani Bryant
· Paige Morton
· Ugonna Ndu
· Ashley Usery
Men's Hammer Throw – 4 p.m. ET
· Jeremy Postin
Women's Discus Invite – 4 p.m. ET
· Keely Medeiros
· Ashley Miller
Men's 400m Hurdles – 4:05 p.m. ET
· Eddie Lovett
Women's 200m Invite – 4:25 p.m. ET
· Darshay Davis
· Ebony Eutsey
· Danielle Williams
Men's 200m Invite – 4:35 p.m. ET
· Jeff Demps
· Blake Heriot
· Leonardo Seymore
· Jovon Toppin
· Terrell Wilks
Women's High Jump – 5:30 p.m. ET
· Rebecca Goldring
· Brittany Harrell
· Alexis Muniz
Women's Long Jump – 6 p.m. ET
· Lorraine Graham
· Daniela Griffin
Men's Javelin – 7 p.m. ET
· Zane Breakiron
· Stipe Zunic
Women's 1,500m – 7 p.m. ET
· Sarah Davis
· Shelby Hayes
· Genevieve LaCaze
· Mandy Perkins
Men's 1,500m – 7:20 p.m. ET
· Geoffrey Anderson
· Michael Anderson
· Matt Mizereck
· Derek Wehunt
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2011
Women's Javelin – 11:30 a.m. ET
· Fawn Miller
Women's Sprint Medley Relay – 12 p.m. ET
· Florida (D. Davis, D. Williams, E. Eutsey, C. McGee)
Women's Shuttle Hurdle Relay – 12:30 p.m. ET
· Florida (L. Graham, B. Harrell, P. Morton, U. Ndu)
Men's Discus – 12:30 p.m. ET
· Stipe Zunic
Men's Pole Vault – 1 p.m. ET
· Eric Foran
· Gray Horn
· Max Lang
Women's Shot Put Invite – 2:30 p.m. ET
· Fidela James
· Keely Medeiros
Men's 4x100m Relay – 2:45 p.m. ET
· Florida (E. Lovett, L. Seymore, T. Wilks, J. Demps)
Women's 4x800m Relay – 3:40 p.m. ET
· Florida (G. LaCaze, S. Hayes, S. Davis, M. Perkins)
Men's 4x800m Relay – 3:55 p.m. ET
· Florida (S. Obinwa, M. Mizereck, J. Mitchell, L. Lawrence)
Women's 4x200m Relay – 4:10 p.m. ET
· Florida (L. Whittaker, D. Williams, D. Davis, E. Eutsey)
Men's 4x200m Relay – 4:30 p.m. ET
· Florida (L. Seymore, T. McQuay, T. Wilks, C. Taylor)
Men's Distance Medley Relay – 5:10 p.m. ET
· Florida (Da. Wehunt, L. Lawrence, De. Wehunt, Anderson)
Women's 4x400m Relay – 6:40 p.m. ET
· Florida (L. Whittaker, D. Williams, U. Ndu, E. Eutsey)
Men's 4x400m Relay – 7:05 p.m. ET
· Florida (B. Heriot, T. McQuay, J. Toppin, C. Taylor)
