Junior distance runner Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia) clocked the second-fastest women’s steeplechase time in school history, charting a more than 14-second personal-best Thursday to highlight a day full of strong performances by the University of Florida track and field team at the 117th Penn Relays Carnival at historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa.
It was a day filled with personal-best times for the Gators, who resume competition at the three-day Penn Relays beginning at 9 a.m. ET Friday. Florida’s throwers also will compete in the Drake Relays tomorrow in Des Moines, Iowa, beginning at 11:45 a.m. ET.
“I think we had a very good day,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “I am pleased with the overall effort and what everyone was able to accomplish today. Coming off finals week, sometimes athletes have the tendency to be flat, but we really challenged our athletes to come in here and give us great effort. I thought that’s what we were able to do today. We got off to a great start with the women’s hurdles and women’s relays, and then continued that tonight. Genevieve LaCaze had a 14-second PR and that’s just huge for her.
“We had a great overall day, but now our challenge is that we’ve got to wake up tomorrow and do the exact same thing,” Holloway continued. “We need to get up, put our spikes on and compete hard like we did today.”
LaCaze turned in a personal-best time of more than 14 seconds to place second overall in the women’s steeplechase. LaCaze clocked a time of 10:12.33 in the event’s championship section to smash her previous personal-best time of 10:26.92. She becomes just the second person in school history to run sub-10:20 in the women’s steeplechase.
Sophomore hurdler Ugonna Ndu (Newark, N.J.) finished second in the women’s 400-meter hurdles championship, matching her personal-best time of 58.79 in the process to open the day. That is the seventh-fastest women’s 400-meter hurdle time in UF school history. Fellow hurdler Amani Bryant (Tampa, Fla.) placed ninth overall in that event, close to her personal-best with a time of 1:00.17.
Sophomore distance runner Callie Cooper (St. Johns, Fla.) ran the seventh-fastest time in school history in the women’s 5,000-meter run championship, placing 11th overall in a personal-best time of 16:32.13, while Michael Anderson (Williston, Fla.) ran a season-best time of 9:12.39 to finish 12th overall in the men’s steeplechase.
The Florida women’s 4x100-meter relay team finished 10th overall in the preliminaries by clocking a time of 45.43. The quartet, consisting of Michelle Stegall (Fayetteville, Ga.), Darshay Davis (Miami, Fla.), Danielle Williams (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Ebony Eutsey (Miami, Fla.), advances to the college section finals, which will be contested at 1:05 p.m. ET Friday.
The women’s 4x400-meter relay team placed seventh overall in the preliminaries of its event with a time of 3:39.91. The quartet consisted of Eutsey, Williams, Ndu and Stegall.
Freshman distance runner Matt Mizereck (Tallahassee, Fla.) placed 12th overall in the championship section of the men’s 5,000-meter run with a personal-best time of 14:17.90, while fellow rookie Mark Parrish (Tampa, Fla.) claimed the college section of the event in a personal-best time of 14:25.95.
Senior pole vaulter Daisy Glasser (Atlantic Beach, Fla.) tied for seventh overall in her event with a leap of 3.80m/12-5.50.
