The
University of Florida track & field teams began competition at the 38th Annual
Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday at Devaney Center Indoor Track at
the University of Nebraska.
“I was
pleased with the way we performed today, across the board,” Florida head coach Mike
Holloway said. “Half of our athletes qualified for finals tomorrow and I
think our throwers and jumpers are where they should be at this point in the
season.”
Nine
Gators advanced to Saturday’s finals, including sophomore quartermiler Hugh
Graham, Jr. (Miami, Fla.), who won the prelims of the men’s 400 meters in
47.25, and freshman phenoms Destinee Gause (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) and Kyra
Jefferson (Detroit, Mich.), who each advanced in the women’s 60 meters on
Friday evening with PRs of 7.37 and 7.41, respectively.
“I was
very impressed with Destinee and Kyra, who both ran PRs in the 60 today,”
Holloway said. “They’re progressing well as the season continues and keep
working hard in practice which shows at meets.”
Junior Ebony
Eutsey (Miami, Fla.) continued her progress in the shorter sprints by
qualifying for the finals of the women’s 200 meters in 24.04. Sophomore Dedric
Dukes (Miami, Fla.) ran a lifetime PR on Friday with his 21.18 time to
qualify for the finals in the men’s 200 meters, while senior Leonardo
Seymore (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) also qualified in 21.41.
Advancing
along with Graham, Jr. in the men’s 400 meters was freshman sprinter Arman
Hall (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), who came in fourth with a time of 48.18.
“I’m
very proud of both Hugh and Arman for qualifying for finals tomorrow,” Holloway
said. “An important part about this meet is being able to prepare for the
conference meet. You have to run prelims and finals on back-to-back days and I
think they both had solid runs today and understand what it takes to prepare
for that many races in such a short span of time.”
Two
hurdlers made the cut on Friday night, as senior Ugonna Ndu (Newark,
N.J.) advanced in the women’s 60-meter hurdles in 8.43, and freshman Moriel
Pitt (West Palm Beach, Fla.) raced to a PR-tying 7.98 in the men’s 60-meter
hurdles to qualify for Saturday’s finals.
“Moriel
had a great race today and tied his PR to advance to tomorrow’s final,”
Holloway noted. “I was proud of him for that, as well Eddie Lovett (West
Palm Beach, Fla.) who ran the first 60 of his life and nearly made the final.”
The
Gators finished 2-3 in both the men’s and women’s long jump. On the men’s side,
sophomore Marquis Dendy (Middletown, Del.) earned a runner-up finish
with his leap of 7.60m/24-11.25, while senior Omar Craddock (Killeen,
Texas) jumped 7.40m/24-3.50 to come in third. On the women’s side, junior Lorraine
Graham (Springdale, Md.) finished second with a mark of 6.00m/19-8.25 and
sophomore Ciarra Brewer (Union City, Calif.) earned third with her jump
of 5.90m/19-4.25.
In his
first appearance of the 2013 season, senior Jeremy Postin (Andover,
Kan.) turned in a third-place throw of 20.70m/67-11, his best season-opening
throw of his career, while fellow senior David Triassi (Jacksonville, Fla.)
finished fifth with his 19.89m/65-3.25 mark. Sophomore Kyle Strawn (Temecula,
Calif.) continues to improve, throwing a career best of 18.51m/60-8.75 to come
in ninth.
“I’m
very pleased with Jeremy’s performance today,” Holloway mentioned. “In speaking
with Coach (Steve) Lemke and Jeremy afterwards, they were very pleased with his
first meet of the season and we expect him to be in this range, so I think he’s
right where he should be.”
Sophomore
Jayla Bostic (Wellington, Fla.) threw just shy of her personal best in
the women’s weight throw on Friday, tossing for a 19.74m/64-9.25 mark to finish
in the runner-up spot.
On Saturday, the field and running events
will start at 1 p.m. ET. Gator thrower Luka Mustafic (Rakitje, Croatia) and
Strawn will start things off for the Orange and Blue on the second day of
action with the men’s shot put.
“I think everyone has an understanding of
what we want to get done this weekend,” Holloway said. “We’re going to rest up
for tomorrow, go back to the track, stick our nose in there and see what we can
do.”
