The University of Florida men’s track and field team capped off one of the finest seasons in program history with a third-place team finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. For the Gators, it marked their third consecutive top-three finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, coupled with a pair of NCAA Indoor Championships during that span.
On the men’s side, Texas A&M captured its third consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championship, totaling 55 team points. Florida State was second with 54 points, while the Gators were third with 53 points. LSU (46) and Virginia Tech (36) rounded out the top five on the men’s side.
“We just had too many things go wrong for us to be the champions,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “It’s another two-point loss and I’m almost at a loss for words. I am the guy in charge of the program and I need to look at myself first. I need to figure out what we have to do to quit coming up short like this. I am proud of our team, but we didn’t perform like the champions that I know we are.”
Texas A&M also took home its third consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championship on the women’s side, scoring 49 total points. Oregon was second with 45 points, while LSU was third with 43.50. Oklahoma (42) and Arizona (35) rounded out the top-five on the women’s side. Florida’s young women’s team performed admirably, scoring eight team points with strong finishes in the women’s steeplechase (Genevieve LaCaze) and the women’s 4x400-meter relay.
“I am extremely proud of our women’s team,” Holloway said. “We are very young, and they just kept trusting and believing. Genevieve LaCaze coming in and breaking the school record in the steeplechase again and finishing fifth overall, I am very proud of her. The women’s 4x4 running the No. 3 time in school history today is just amazing. I am so, so proud of them.”
The Gators stole the show in the men’s triple jump on Saturday, as Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.) and Will Claye (Phoenix, Ariz.) went 1-2 in the event. Taylor won the meet with a jump of 17.80m/58-4.75 (+2.3) and Claye was second with a mark of 17.62m/57-9.75 (+2.9) to put up 18 big points for Florida. Taylor’s slightly wind-aided mark goes down as the collegiate all-time, all-conditions best.
Claye set Florida’s school record and the Drake Stadium facility record in the process with a wind-legal best jump of 17.35m/56-11.25 (+1.5) on his third attempt.
Junior distance runner Dumisani Hlaselo (South Africa) placed fifth in the men’s 1,500-meter run, clocking a time of 3:44.59 to earn four team points for the Gators.
The Florida men’s 4x400-meter relay team finished sixth overall in a time of 3:05.20. The quartet consisted of Taylor, sophomore Jovon Toppin (Port of Spain, Trinidad), sophomore Sean Obinwa (Tampa, Fla.) and sophomore Tony McQuay (Riviera Beach, Fla.).
Junior distance runner Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia) set the school record in the steeplechase for the third consecutive meet, becoming the first person in school history to run sub-10 minutes in the event. LaCaze clocked a time of 9:59.44 to place fifth overall. The improvement has been nothing short of impressive, as LaCaze entered the 2011 campaign with a then-career-best steeplechase time of 10:26.92.
The women’s 4x400-meter relay team was electric on Saturday, turning in the third-fastest time in school history by clocking a time of 3:30.43 to finish fifth. It marked the best time Florida has run on the 4x400-meter relay team since the team’s NCAA runner-up season of 1992. The quartet consisted of freshman Ebony Eutsey (Miami, Fla.), junior Alishea Usery (St. Louis, Mo.), senior Danielle Williams (Jacksonville, Fla.) and sophomore Ugonna Ndu (Newark, N.J.).
Freshman distance runner Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.) placed 10th overall in the women’s 1,500-meter run in a time of 4:19.18 to conclude a highly successful rookie campaign.
“We have a lot of good people coming back on both sides,” Holloway said. “We’re really excited about both our men and women. The bottom line is, it’s just a tough pill to swallow right now.”
