Junior Florida multi-event athlete Gray Horn (Waynesfield, Ohio) leads the heptathlon Friday after the first day and freshman Brittany Harrell (McComb, Miss.) placed seventh in the women’s pentathlon to highlight the opening day of the 2011 Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Arkansas at its Randal Tyson Track Center.
Horn currently sits in first place in the heptathlon with a first-day score of 3,212, which is just shy of his personal-best and school-record first-day score of 3,242. Arkansas’ Kevin Lazas is in second place with a four-event total of 3,186, while Georgia’s Michael Ayers is in third with a total of 3,121.
Harrell finished seventh in the pentathlon, scoring two team points for the Gators, with a personal-best score of 3,771. That topped her previous personal-best tally of 3,731, set at the Texas A&M Challenge on Jan. 28. Kentucky’s Precious Nwokey won the event with an NCAA automatic-qualifying score of 4,185, while Georgia’s Lucie Ondraschkova was second with 3,995 points.
“I thought both of our athletes did a good job today,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “For Brittany to come in as a freshman and score in a tough event like that is a great indicator of her future here. I thought Gray did a great job in the first three events and then made some technical errors in the high jump. He’s still leading and he has a chance to come out tomorrow – he’s never won this event – and do what he’s capable of doing.”
Horn opened the day by winning the 60-meter dash in a time of 6.99, which was just shy of his personal-best time of 6.98. He then followed up with a personal-best leap of 7.35m/24-1.50 in the long jump to place second in that event. That bettered his previous personal-best of 7.28m/23-10.75 set at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Horn posted a fourth-place finish in the shot put with a toss of 13.20m/43-3.75 before finishing out the day with a third-place finish in the high jump at 1.94m/6-4.25.
“A lot of things went my way today, and some things didn’t,” Horn said. “That’s just how the heptathlon works. I’m sure if you talk to every competitor out there, they aren’t happy with every performance they had today. I’m in the lead going into tomorrow with my best event – the hurdles – next. I’m excited for that and I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve done all year, and try to bring this title home.”
Harrell began the pentathlon with a multi-event-best time of 8.77 to place sixth in the 60-meter hurdles. It was just shy of her collegiate-best time of 8.72 in that event. She followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the high jump at 1.67m/5-5.75.
Harrell turned in a personal-best toss of 11.16m/36-7.50 to place fourth in the shot put, shattering her previous personal-record toss of 10.92m/35-10, charted at the Texas A&M Challenge earlier this season. That performance catapulted her into fourth place in the event at the time. Harrell then was ninth in the long jump with a leap of 5.39m/17-8.25. She capped off the day with a personal-best time of 2:27.82 in the 800-meter run.
Harrell’s pentathlon score went down as one of the top-five in UF school history.
“As long as I can score some points for the Gators, I’m happy,” Harrell said. “It started off great today with my second-best time in the hurdles and I thought I did a pretty decent job in the high jump. I moved into fourth after the shot put with my PR in that, but it wasn’t my best long jump. I ran my PR in the 800, so overall I was happy with my performance.”
