Florida head coach Mike Holloway is the 2013 U.S.
Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Outdoor
Men’s Coach of the Year, announced Thursday. This is Holloway’s fifth USTFCCCA
National Men’s Coach of the Year nod, having won three consecutive indoors from
2010-12 and earning his second straight national honor outdoors.
In his 11th year as the Gators’ coach, Holloway guided
Florida to their second straight NCAA outdoor track & field national team
title. The Gators scored 53 points for the crown, tying Texas A&M for the
title. Florida won the 4x400-meter relay, the concluding event, to reach the
top of the final team standings. The Gators had been down to the Aggies by nine
points before the finale.
Florida is the first team since 1978 (UTEP, UCLA) to share
an NCAA outdoor title and Saturday was just the fourth time in NCAA history a
tie occurred.
The Orange and Blue took home three individual NCAA titles
courtesy of the men’s 4x100-meter relay, 4x400-meter relay and senior Omar
Craddock (Killeen, Texas), who won his third career NCAA title in the men’s
triple jump and second straight outdoors. Craddock’s jump of 16.92m/55-6.25, a
new personal best for him, is the third-best jump in the U.S. in 2013.
The Gator men’s 4x100-meter relay was first on the track on
Championship Saturday and started things off right, capturing the fifth 4x1
NCAA outdoor crown in program history. The foursome of freshman Antwan
Wright (Riviera Beach, Fla.), sophomore Hugh Graham, Jr. (Miami,
Fla.), senior Leonardo Seymore (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and sophomore Dedric
Dukes (Miami, Fla.) got it done for the Gators, edging out runner-up
Alabama by a hundredth of a second, 38.53 to 38.54. The time was the
fifth-fastest 4x1 performance in the world this year.
Trailing Texas A&M by nine points heading into the final
event, the Gators, with a lineup of Najee Glass (Woodbridge, N.J.), Graham,
Jr., Dukes and Arman Hall (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), claimed the
4x400-meter relay title (3:01.34) and the 10 points that came along with it. A&M
– in the same race – dropped the baton but rebounded to finish eighth, giving
them one point and putting them in a tie for the national title with the
Gators. The time was the third-fastest 4x4 performance in the world in 2013 and
Florida won its second straight title in the event.
The Gators also garnered three medal finishes on the men’s
side with junior Eddie Lovett (West Palm Beach, Fla.) turning in a
runner-up performance in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, freshman Arman Hall
becoming just the 13th freshman in NCAA history to finish third or better in
the men’s 400 meters and senior Jeremy Postin (Andover, Kan.), who
finished his Gator career with a third-place performance in the men’s hammer
throw.
The last two days of the NCAA Outdoor Championships will air
on Sunday, June 16 beginning at 4 p.m. ET on ESPNU, directly following a replay
of the Gator women’s gymnastics team capturing the 2013 NCAA Championship at 2
p.m. ET.
Next up for the Gators is the USA Outdoor Track & Field
Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, June 19-23. Holloway serves as the head
men’s coach for Team USA as the Red, White and Blue prepare for the 14th IAAF
World Outdoor Championships in Moscow, Russia later this summer. Holloway was a
member of the Team USA coaching staff at the 2012 Olympic Games, working as the
sprints and hurdles coach in London.
