Mike Holloway, who has won 13 national titles as head coach of the men's and women's track program, has the Gators eyeing more with the outdoor postseason underway. (Photo: Mallory Peak/UAA Communications)
Holloway, Gators Embrace a Rare Home Start to Championship Season
Thursday, May 9, 2024 | Track and Field, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Gators two-sport standout Jeff Demps was a freshman flash, having won a national championship as a running back on the UF football team before track season. In other sports news, Dallas owner Mark Cuban and Denver player Kenyon Martin waged a war of words in the media, and then-Louisville coach Rick Pitino was in the headlines because a woman, not his wife, was trying to extort money from him.
Those were some of the headlines 15 years ago when the University of Florida last hosted the Southeastern Conference Track & Field Outdoor Championships. That changes Thursday-Saturday as the event returns to Percy Beard Track for the first time since May 2009.
How's this for a perspective flash? Florida's track and field program has won 13 national titles under head coach Mike Holloway since the SEC Outdoor Championships last made a stop on Woodlawn Drive. The Gators won their first one less than a year later when Demps and Co. claimed the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championship.
They haven't stopped since, with the men and women sweeping the outdoor national titles in 2022 and the men's team repeating in 2023. At the most recent NCAA Indoor Championships, the UF men placed third and the women, second, as they chased No. 14.
"Our goal every year is to be national champions,'' Holloway said. "This is the time of year we strive for. We want to be at our best."
Holloway's teams have won in various ways. In some years, sprinters and hurdlers carried the load; in other seasons, jumpers dominated, and throwers proved crucial. In recent years, at least on the women's side, distance runners like Parker Valby have set the pace.
Whatever it takes.
"The goal is to always be 100 percent at nationals,'' said long jumper Malcom Clemons, second at the SEC Indoor Finals in February. "We're getting close to that point."
The Gators are hosting the Southeastern Conference Track & Field Outdoor Championships over the next three days at Percy Beard Track. (Photo: Gabriella Whisler/University Athletic Association)
Being at home doesn't hurt in their quest to peak over the next month heading into the NCAA Championships in June. The Gators know their way around the track, if you will, and are not living out of a suitcase and in a hotel room for the next few days.
"There's a comfort level in that,'' Holloway said. "Hotel beds and I don't get along."
"I mean, we train here every day, and I love being here, so it's a lot of confidence going into a meet," sprinter/hurdler Grace Stark added. "You just feel so comfortable with the atmosphere."
Florida features several returning conference outdoor champions, including sprinters Robert Gregory (200 meters) and Jevaughn Powell (4x400), thrower Alida van Daalen (shot put) and distance star Valby (5,000 meters).
Gregory has only recorded one 200-meter finish in the outdoor season but is unconcerned. He is tapering according to plan and starting to feel healthy at the perfect time.
"You try to come out and treat it like any other meet, but we know it's championship season,'' he said.
Clemons, a native of Oakland, Calif., moved to Florida to attend the IMG Academy in Bradenton and signed with the Gators to train among the best of the best. Olympian jumpers Christian Taylor and Will Claye are sometimes at practice.
They know the mindset Holloway has when the calendar flips to May. So does Clemons.
"This is the time of the year when things really get serious, and everybody locks in,'' he said. "I think the meet being [at home], it just makes it a little better for us because you can go out and defend our home track. I think everybody will be in the right competitive mind."
Gators women's high jumper/long jumper Claire Bryant won the SEC Indoor long jump title three months ago, relying on a solid foundation of training she built last fall when the Gators began offseason workouts.
Florida's success takes center stage in the spring, but the Gators put in the work long before the SEC Network cameras come to town.
"There was a lot of hard workouts,'' Bryant said. "I feel everyone can attest to that."
Meanwhile, Holloway has a team he is confident can compete for conference and national titles again in 2024. The other day, he shared a story about a young coach who questioned whether his team was ready for the conference championships.
Holloway didn't have that concern. And if he did, you can do nothing about it now. This is championship season.
"We pride ourselves on being ready for the championship season, and this year is no different,'' he said. "If we're not in shape now, we're not getting in shape. We have to just deal with where we are, be present, and go out and put the blocks down, get on the runways and do our jobs. If we do that, we'll be fine.
"There's no magic formula."
If there was, Holloway could have been rich a long time ago from selling it.
