DES MOINES, Iowa --The Florida men’s track & field team captured
the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship on Saturday at
Drake University. The men scored 50 points to edge LSU (48 points) and
Texas A&M (40 points) for the men’s team title. This is the first
NCAA Outdoor Championship in Florida athletics history and the third
NCAA Championship for the Florida Gators this year (men’s indoor track
& field & women’s tennis).
The Gators are the first team since the Arkansas Razorbacks (2003) to
win both the indoor and outdoor NCAA titles. The Razorbacks won both in
2005 as well but the outdoor title was vacated.
The men’s 4x400-meter relay, composed of Dedric Dukes (Miami, Fla.)
and Hugh Graham, Jr. (Miami, Fla.) Leonardo Seymore (Palm Beach Gardens,
Fla.) and Tony McQuay (Riviera Beach, Fla.), clinched the NCAA
Championship for the Florida men, earning the first individual
4x400-meter relay title in Florida history and securing the first NCAA
Outdoor Championship for the Gators on the men’s or women’s side. They
finished in a time of 3:00.02 to seal the victory for the Orange and
Blue. McQuay calmly sat in second with 200 meters to go on the anchor
leg and seized control of the race as the Gators ran a world-leading
time in victory.
Sophomore Eddie Lovett (West Palm Beach, Fla.) gave the Gators bonus
points in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, finishing fifth in 13.82 and
scoring four much-needed points for the Orange and Blue in his first
NCAA Outdoor Championships final. Lovett got out strong and stayed
neck-and-neck with LSU’s Barrett Nugent, the defending NCAA champion.
Nugent crossed the finish line in fourth and Lovett stayed right by his
side, finishing just .02 behind the SEC Outdoor Champion.
