Florida Track & Field Ready for Hayward Field Magic at NCAA Outdoor Championships
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 | Track and Field
EUGENE, Ore. -- After two practice days in Eugene, the standard pre-NCAA Championships media schedule and a team dinner Monday night, the Orange and Blue are ready to get the party started at Historic Hayward Field for the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Wednesday. The ESPN family of networks will have all the action covered throughout the four-day championships in Oregon as the No. 1 Florida men and No. 6 Gator women look to add their sixth and second national championship crowns, respectively, to the trophy case.
Competition kicks off with the first day of the men's championship Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET with the semis of the 4x1 relay, while the No. 1 Gators will have eight semifinals competitors in individual events before the 4x4 relays wrap up the men's qualifying day on the track. Florida will have its first scoring opportunities Wednesday in the long jump and shot put, as senior national champions Marquis Dendy and Stipe Zunic leave it all on the field in their last NCAA competition as Gators.
Dendy will be shooting for individual national title No. 6 Wednesday, while Zunic will look to sweep the NCAA indoor and outdoor shot put titles after winning in Fayetteville in March. The men's team national champion will be crowned Friday following the second and last day of men's finals.
On the women's side, the Gators will hit the track and field Thursday for their first qualifying day on the track at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET, while freshman Darrielle McQueen and senior defending national champion in the javelin Fawn Miller will look to put up UF's first points of the championship in finals of the long jump and jav, respectively. The women's national champion will be crowned Saturday evening in Eugene after the second day of finals competition at Hayward Field.
Florida returns all five of its national champions from last year and will look to put a punctuation mark on a stellar 2015 outdoor campaign thus far. More information on the Gators and 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships:
GATORS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS NOTABLES
· A contingent of 23 Gators descended upon Eugene and TrackTown USA Sunday afternoon for the 2015 NCAA Championships at Historic Hayward Field. The Gators own six national titles, including five on the men's side. Two of those crowns are outdoor national titles as the No. 1 UF men's squad struck with back-to-back outdoor titles in 2012 and 2013. The No. 6 Florida women own one indoor national title from 1992
· On both the men's and women's sides, Florida returns all of its 2014 National Champions, including senior jumper Marquis Dendy who swept both horizontal jumps at 2014 outdoors and 2015 indoors. He'll shoot for his sixth and seventh national titles this weekend. Men's senior Dedric Dukes, the reigning 200m champion, returns to defend his title, while the Gators' 4x1 will additionally look to go back-to-back. On the women's side, defending javelin national champion Fawn Miller is back in Eugene for the Gators, while redshirt sophomore Kyra Jefferson, the indoor national champion at 200m, has made a splash this season in the 200m and enters NCAAs as the top seed in the event
· The Gators were crowned the 2015 SEC Outdoor Champions on the men's side after picking up Florida's fifth overall outdoor title in Starkville in May
· Last season at NCAA Outdoors, the Florida men were the national runner-up, UF's third straight top-two finish and seventh consecutive top-five finish. The Gators scored 70 points at NCAA Outdoors, the most under Florida head coach Mike Holloway and the most for Gators in 40 years, while racking up 21 All-America honors, tying for the most in UF history (2011)
· On the women's side, after finishing third indoors for their highest finish under head coach Mike Holloway, the Gators finished with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the second top-five finish under Holloway and the best since third in 2010. Florida scored the second-most points in program history at NCAA Outdoors (55), while UF's 19 All-America honors from outdoors marked the most in school history
· READ: Florida Cleans Up with Four USTFCCCA Outdoor Regional Postseason Awards
· READ: From Will Pantages | Last One, Best One: Dukes and Family Seek Successful Week at NCAA Championships
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS TIDBITS
· The Gator men's squad will take to the track and field Wednesday and Friday, while the Gator ladies compete on Thursday and Saturday in this year's new schedule format, which this year crowns the men's team champion Friday, the women's Saturday
· With the approved schedule change, ESPN will have unprecedented coverage of the 2015 Championships. For surround coverage each day on ESPN3.com, visit the Gators Game Day box on UF track and field's main page for all live links directly to coverage and live stats
· Holloway will additionally participate in the NCAA's official press conference Tuesday at Matthew Knight Arena on the University of Oregon campus at 3 p.m. PT to complete the pre-NCAA media festival for the No. 1 Gator men and No. 6 Florida women
MEET AND BROADCAST INFORMATION
· 2015 NCAA Championships Schedule
· ESPN Broadcast Schedule:
Wednesday, June 10....................7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
2 p.m.-10:45 p.m. (ESPN3)
Thursday, June 11........................7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
8:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (ESPN)
1 p.m.-10:45 p.m. (ESPN3)
Friday, June 12.............................7:30 p.m.-10 p.m. (ESPN)
7 p.m.-10:15 p.m. (ESPN3)
Saturday, June 13........................5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
4:30 p.m.-7:45 p.m. (ESPN3)
FLORIDA NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE (all times Pacific)
| Wednesday, June 10 (MEN) | |
| 5:15pm | Long Jump – Dendy |
| 5:30pm | Shot Put – Zunic |
| 4:00pm | 4x100 (S) – Wright-Hall-Futch-Dukes |
| 4:38pm | Steeple (S) – Parrish |
| 5:02pm | 110 Hurdles (S) – Hart |
| 5:16pm | 100m (S) – Dukes |
| 5:30pm | 400m (S) – Glass |
| 5:54pm | 800m (S) – Schnulle / Arroyo |
| 6:10pm | 400m Hurdles (S) – Futch |
| 6:24pm | 200m (S) – Dukes |
| 7:28pm | 4x400 (S) – Uruburu-Hall-Futch-Glass-Dukes |
| Thursday, June 11 (WOMEN) | |
| 5:15pm | Long Jump – McQueen |
| 5:30pm | Javelin – Miller |
| 4:00pm | 4x100 (S) – Reynolds-Sanders-Gause-Jefferson |
| 5:02pm | 100 Hurdles (S) – Owens |
| 5:16pm | 100m (S) – Sanders |
| 5:30pm | 400m (S) – Reynolds |
| 5:44pm | 800m (S) – Francis |
| 6:14pm | 200m (S) – Jefferson / Gause |
| 7:18pm | 4x400 (S) – Reynolds-Jefferson-Gause-Francis- Washington |
| Friday, June 12 (MEN – CHAMPIONSHIP CROWNED, running competitors pending qualification Wednesday) | |
| 4:30pm | Triple Jump – Dendy |
| 4:35pm | 4x100 (F) – Wright-Hall-Futch-Dukes |
| 4:57pm | Steeple (F) – Parrish |
| 5:15pm | 110 Hurdles (F) – Hart |
| 5:25pm | 100m (F) – Dukes |
| 5:35pm | 400m (F) – Glass |
| 5:50pm | 800m (F) – Schnulle / Arroyo |
| 6:00pm | 400m Hurdles (F) – Futch |
| 6:10pm | 200m (F) – Dukes |
| 6:50pm | 4x400 (F) – Uruburu-Hall-Futch-Glass-Dukes |
| Saturday, June 13 (WOMEN – CHAMPIONSHIP CROWNED, running competitors pending qualification Thursday) | |
| 1:30pm | High Jump – Burke |
| 2:00pm | Triple Jump – Brewer |
| 2:05pm | 4x100 (F) – Reynolds-Sanders-Gause-Jefferson |
| 2:45pm | 100 Hurdles (F) – Owens |
| 2:55pm | 100m (F) – Sanders |
| 3:05pm | 400m (F) – Reynolds |
| 3:20pm | 800m (F) – Francis |
| 3:40pm | 200m (F) – Jefferson / Gause |
| 4:20pm | 4x400 (F) – Reynolds-Jefferson-Gause-Francis-Washington |
IN THE POLLS
Men: No. 1
Women: No. 6
FOLLOW THE GATORS
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PERFORMANCE LISTS: W Outdoor Top 10 | M Outdoor Top 10 | 2015 Outdoor Performance Chart
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