Quick Notes for the SEC Outdoor Championships
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 | Track and Field
· The Florida track and field teams are in Athens, Ga., this weekend looking to claim SEC Outdoor Championships. The Gator men are looking for their second consecutive such title, while the women are seeking their second in three years. Florida's men have won SEC Outdoor Championships in 1953, 1956, 1987 and 2010. The Gator women have won SEC Outdoor Championships in 1992, 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2009.
· Florida's men enter the meet ranked No. 2 in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. The Gator men, who began the season ranked No. 1 in the USTFCCCA poll, held their No. 1 ranking until April 26, when data from the previous season was removed from consideration in the computer rankings. The Gators were No. 4 in the April 26 poll and ranked third last week. Florida's women are unranked.
· The Gator men are looking to accomplish a first in school history - winning back-to-back SEC Outdoor Championships.
· Florida has three individuals who are looking to repeat individual SEC Outdoor Championships from a year ago - Jeff Demps (men's 100m), Gray Horn (men's decathlon) and Christian Taylor (men's triple jump). The UF men's 4x400-meter relay team also claimed the SEC Outdoor Championship a year ago.
· Entering the weekend, Florida has athletes who hold the top mark in the SEC in five different events – Jeff Demps (men's 100m – 9.96), Gray Horn (men's decathlon – 7,791), Genevieve LaCaze (women's steeplechase – 10:12.33), Cory McGee (women's 1,500m – 4:16.39) and Fawn Miller (women's javelin – 49.45m/162-3).
· Junior decathlete Gray Horn is the two-time defending SEC Outdoor Champion in the men's decathlon and looks to become just the second athlete in league history to win three consecutive decathlon titles. LSU's Claston Bernard is the only other athlete in SEC history to win three league decathlon titles, doing so from 1999-2001. Horn also won his first career SEC heptathlon title earlier this year and was an All-American at the NCAA Indoor Championships, placing fourth in the heptathlon.
· Freshman thrower Fawn Miller is the reigining SEC Women's Freshman of the Week after recording the third-best women's javelin toss in program history last Friday at the Seminole Twilight Invitational. She tallied a mark of 49.45m/162-3 to shatter her previous personal-best mark of 46.60m/152-11. Miller becomes just the third person in program history to throw better than 160 feet, and that mark goes down as tops in the SEC this season. She currently ranks 17th in the nation in the women's javelin.
· The Gators boast a powerful 1-2-3 punch in the men's triple jump as Will Claye, Omar Craddock and Christian Taylor are three of the top jumpers in the conference. The trio swept the event at this year's SEC Indoor Championships and went 1-2-5 at the NCAA Indoor Championships this past March. Craddock currently ranks second in the SEC in the men's triple jump, while Claye is third and Taylor is fifth.
· Junior distance runner Genevieve LaCaze is looking to claim the women's steeplechase event for the second time in her career after winning in 2009. LaCaze currently has the top steeplechase mark in the SEC this season at 10:12.33. That personal-best mark, recorded at this year's Penn Relays Carnival, is the second-best steeplechase time in school history. She is just the second person in program history to run sub-10:20 in the women's steeplechase.
· Sophomore thrower Jeremy Postin has consistently improved throughout his Florida career and, this season, has broken his own school record on three different occasions. His current school-record mark of 66.12m/216-11 came at the Drake Relays, and he ranks third in the SEC in the men's hammer throw this season. Postin was the SEC Men's Field Athlete of the Week on April 5, and currently ranks 12th in the nation in his event.
· Junior sprinter Jeff Demps currently leads the nation in the men's 100-meter dash with a wind-aided mark of 9.96 (+2.4). That matches Demps' career-best wind-aided time of 9.96 ran at last season's NCAA Oudoor Championships. His best non-wind-aided time this season is 10.07. Demps is looking to claim his second consecutive SEC Outdoor Championships in the men's 100-meter dash. He is the 2010 NCAA 100m Champion and a two-time defending NCAA Indoor Champion in the 60m. Demps looks to become the SEC's first repeat 100m champion since Tim Harden, of Kentucky, won the event three consecutive years from 1994-96. The last Gator to win back-to-back SEC 100m Championships was Dennis Mitchell, who claimed three individual crowns from 1987-89.
· Sophomore sprinter Tony McQuay is recovering nicely from a hamstring injury sustained at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships. The 200/400 runner is slated to compete in both events this weekend at the SEC Outdoor Championships. Competing at the Seminole Twilight Invitational last weekend, McQuay ran a time of 46.34 in the 400m. McQuay was the 2011 SEC Indoor Champion in the 200m.
· Senior sprinter Terrell Wilks hopes to have saved his best for last heading into the final conference meet of his collegiate career. Wilks, Florida's emotional leader, is tied for fourth in the conference in the 100m (10.19) and is fourth in the 200m with a personal-best time of 20.51. Wilks has also been a key component of Florida's two-time defending NCAA Champion 4x100-meter relay team.
· Freshman middle distance runner Cory McGee burst onto the scene this season as a rookie, winning the SEC Indoor Mile Championship earlier this year and advancing to the NCAA Indoor Championships. McGee is a two-time SEC Outdoor Women's Freshman of the Week and currently leads the SEC in the women's 1,500m with a personal-best time of 4:16.39. That time also is 12th in the nation. McGee additionally ranks ninth in the SEC in the women's 800m at 2:07.45.
· Sophomore middle distance runner Sean Obinwa has made great strides his sophomore year. Growing up as a soccer player, Obinwa never competed in the sport of track and field until the spring of 2009, his senior year in high school. He now ranks 10th all-time in program history in the men's 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 1:47.73, which currently ranks sixth nationally. Obinwa also is a critical part of Florida's 4x400-meter relay team.
· Junior middle distance runner Dumisani Hlaselo, in his first year at Florida, claimed a pair of SEC titles at the 2011 SEC Indoor Championships, winning both the men's mile and the men's 3,000-meter run. Hlaselo currently ranks second in the conference and fourth in the nation in the men's 1,500m run with a best time of 3:40.66. He will be looking for Florida's first SEC outdoor title in the 800-meter run since Shane Stroup won the event in 2006.
· Junior thrower Keely Medeiros is a double threat for the Gators at the SEC Outdoor Championships, having set personal-best marks in both the shot put and discus already this season. She currently ranks fourth all-time in program history in the women's discus at 54.91m/180-2 and is fifth all-time in the shot put at 17.26m/56-7.50. Medeiros ranks fifth nationally in the discus and sixth nationally in the shot put.
