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Photo Gallery: UF Track, SEC Championships, Day 3 & 4, 5/16-17/09 : The University of Florida women’s track and field team used an all-around impressive performance, earning points in all areas, to capture its first Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championship since the 2003 season. The Gators scored 135.5 total team points on Sunday at Percy Beard Track and James G. Pressly Stadium to secure the victory in front of a raucous home crowd.

The unranked Florida women claimed the event, defeating No. 4 LSU (113) and No. 12 Tennessee (106). The Gator men’s team finished second overall with 129 points. Arkansas won the 2009 SEC men’s outdoor championship with 141 points, while LSU was third with 98.50.

In total, the Florida men’s and women’s teams won nine individual SEC championships during the course of the weekend, claiming league crowns in the men’s decathlon, women’s steeplechase, women’s long jump, women’s triple jump, women’s javelin, women’s shot put, men’s 4x100-meter relay, men’s 200-meter dash and the men’s 400-meter dash.

Junior sprinter Calvin Smith captured the 2009 men's Commissioner’s Trophy, awarded to the league’s high-points scorer at the outdoor championships. Smith finished with 22 total points, earning an SEC individual championship in the 400-meter dash, a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash and he was also part of an SEC Champion 4x100-meter relay team and a third-place 4x400-meter relay team.

Junior thrower Mariam Kevkhishvili set a new Southeastern Conference outdoor record in the women’s shot put with a winning throw of 59-2.75/18.05m. That personal-best mark goes down as the top throw in the country so far this season and breaks former Gator Kimberli Barrett’s SEC shot put record of 57-6, achieved during the 2004 campaign.

Freshman thrower Keely Medeiros finished second in the women’s shot put with an NCAA regional-qualifying toss of 54-3.25/16.54m to help the Gators earn 18 points in that event and lock up their league championship.

Junior sprinter Jeremy Hall turned in the ninth-fastest men’s 200-meter dash time in school history, clocking a personal-best time of 20.51 (-1.1) to win the event. Smith, who was second in the men’s 200-meter dash in a time of 20.72, captured the men’s 400-meter dash title in a personal-best time of 44.96.

The Florida men’s 4x100-meter relay team registered the third-fastest time in that event in school history (38.74), winning the school’s first title in that event. The relay team consisted of Hall, Smith, Wilks and Jeff Demps. Hall turned in a major personal-best in the men’s 100-meter dash to finish as the runner-up in that event. He clocked a 10.08 (+1.1), which marks the fourth-fastest time in school history in the men’s 100-meter dash.

Junior jumper Shara Proctor claimed the SEC women’s triple jump on Sunday after claiming the long jump on Saturday. She finished second in the Commissioner’s Trophy standings with 20 total points. Her triple jump leap of 44-0.75/13.43m (+3.6) broke her own school record in the event.

Junior thrower Evelien Dekkers won the SEC women’s javelin title for the second consecutive year, using a winning and NCAA regional-qualifying toss of 173-11/53.02m. That mark was a personal-record for Dekkers, who eclipsed her previous best of 173-4/52.84m. Junior Star Sansone was fifth in the women’s javelin, helping the Gators to earn 13 points in the event. Sansone turned in an NCAA regional-qualifying mark of 142-5/43.40m.

Junior distance runner Charlotte Browning finished as the runner-up in the women’s 1,500-meter run, clocking a personal-best time of 4:19.66. Sophomore Kaitlin Shiver was sixth in a time of 4:26.66, as the Gators earned 11 points in the event. Browning also finished sixth in the finals of the women’s 800-meter run.

Florida returns to action May 29-30, when it travels to Greensboro, N.C., to participate in the 2009 NCAA East Regional.

Photo Gallery: UF Track, SEC Championships, Day 3 & 4, 5/16-17/09

The University of Florida women’s track and field team used an all-around impressive performance, earning points in all areas, to capture its first Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championship since the 2003 season. The Gators scored 135.5 total team points on Sunday at Percy Beard Track and James G. Pressly Stadium to secure the victor ...

Updated: May 17, 2009 9:52pm PST

Photo Gallery: UF Track, SEC Championships, Day 1 & 2, 5/14-15/09 : Freshman Florida decathlete Gray Horn on Friday became the first athlete in school history to win the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Decathlon Championship. The victory highlighted the second day of the 2009 SEC Outdoor Championships, hosted by the University of Florida at its Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium.

Horn broke the freshman school record in the decathlon with a score of 7,389 points to eclipse Mike Morrison’s freshman school record. That total goes down as the fourth-best decathlon score in school history.

Horn captured the first two events of the day, winning the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.87 (+0.2), which matched his decathlon PR in that event. He followed that victory up with a first-place finish in the discus, using a career-best throw of 128-0/39.02m to extend his lead in the decathlon to 5,319-5,073 against Tennessee’s Michael Ayers. Horn then capitalized a collegiate-best leap of 15-11.00/4.85m in the pole vault to give him a lead of more than 200 points in the event. He then struggled to an eighth-place performance in the men’s javelin to fall behind Ayers 6,700-6,639. Horn would need to beat Ayers by approximately nine seconds in the 1,500m, the day’s final event, to capture the title. Horn turned in a collegiate-best time of 4:29.19 in the 1,500-meter run to capture the league decathlon championship.  

Through three events scored, the Florida men currently are in a tie for sixth place overall with 10 points. The Gator women currently are third in the meet through three events with 15 points.

In the 10,000-meter final, the Florida women earned 15 points with a trio of top-five finishes. Sara Petrick was third in a time of 35:15.39, Laura Garrow was fourth in 35:17.66, while Jacy Kruzel was fifth in 35:40.27.

Senior Carlos Phillips and junior Charlotte Browning each qualified for the finals of the 800-meter run. Phillips finished fourth in the prelims of the men’s 800m run with an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 1:48.83, while Browning was fourth in the prelims of the women’s 800-meter run in a collegiate-best and NCAA regional-qualifying time of 2:06.47.

Florida qualified two sprinters for the finals of the men’s 200-meter dash. Junior Calvin Smith was fourth in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 20.86 (-0.9), while junior Jeremy Hall was sixth in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 20.87 (-0.9)

Freshman sprinter Madison McNary was eighth in the prelims of the women’s 200-meter dash, advancing to the event’s finals with a time of 23.88 (+0.5), which matches her collegiate-best time in the event.

Freshman hurdler William Wynne was second in the prelims of the men’s 400-meter hurdles in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 50.00 to advance him to the event’s final.

Photo Gallery: UF Track, SEC Championships, Day 1 & 2, 5/14-15/09

Freshman Florida decathlete Gray Horn on Friday became the first athlete in school history to win the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Decathlon Championship. The victory highlighted the second day of the 2009 SEC Outdoor Championships, hosted by the University of Florida at its Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium. Horn broke th ...

Updated: May 15, 2009 9:25pm PST

Photo Gallery: Tom Jones Memorial Invitational Track Meet, 1/24/09 : Senior Carlos Phillips turned in a strong performance, winning the men’s 800-meter run in an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1:49.86 and also running on Florida’s 4x400-meter relay which finished first in a provisional-qualifying time of 3:09.38.

Phillips beat his closest competitor in the 800m – unattached runner Kenny Jesensky – by more than a second-and-a-half, and was one of three Gators to finish in the top four in that event. Sophomore Lamarr Davis was third in a time of 1:52.21, while junior Ethan Philpot was fourth in 1:52.94.

In front of its home faithful for the only time this indoor season, the fan-favorite men’s 4x400-meter relay generated much excitement within the crowd, which was capped off by the Gators’ first-place finish in the event. The primary relay consisted of Christian Taylor, Phillips, freshman William Wynne and junior Calvin Smith.

Junior thrower Mariam Kevkhishvili, who last week became the first athlete in the nation to earn an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in the women’s shot put and who entered the meet with the nation’s best mark in that event, improved upon last weekend’s performance with another automatic-qualifying toss of 56-0/17.07m, to win the shot put on Saturday.
Ten NCAA provisional-qualifying marks and twenty-four individual top-five finishes highlighted an impressive day by the University of Florida track and field team at the second-annual Tom Jones Memorial Invitational on Saturday in Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Sophomore thrower Keely Medeiros was second in the women’s shot put, improving on her collegiate indoor personal best with a provisional-qualifying throw of 52-7.5/16.04m. Medeiros, who entered the meet in 10th place all time at UF in the women’s shot put, moved up to ninth place, surpassing Dore DeBartolo’s toss of 52-2.5/15.91m in 2003.

Junior Justin Taylor clocked a more than five-second personal-best time to win the men’s mile in an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 4:04.74. Sophomore Kaitlin Shiver bested her personal-record time in the women’s mile by more than nine seconds to finish fourth in a provisional-qualifying time of 4:46.29, while freshman Genevieve LaCaze – the 2008 Southeastern Conference Female Cross Country Freshman of the Year – who was competing in her first collegiate track and field meet had a provisional-qualifying time of 4:47.20 in the women’s mile.

Senior pole vaulter Natalie Moser highlighted a strong list of performances in the women’s pole vault for the Gators on Saturday. She recorded an NCAA provisional-qualifying leap of 12-11.5/3.95m to finish second in the event. Moser was the top collegiate finisher in an exciting competition that lasted nearly three hours. Sophomore Daisy Glasser was sixth in the pole vault (12-3.50/3.75m), while Lauren Menke bested her collegiate indoor PR in the event with a leap of 11-11.75/3.65m.

Sophomore sprinter Terrell Wilks provisionally qualified in the men’s 55-meter dash in a time of 6.25 to finish second in the event, while junior Jeremy Hall was fourth overall in 6.28.

For the second consecutive meet, senior Dennis Martin turned in a provisional-qualifying time in the hurdles, this time notching a 7.36 in the men’s 55-meter hurdles.

Three Gators finished in the top-five of the women’s 3,000-meter run with junior Charlotte Browning, competing in her first track and field meet for Florida, charting a second-place finish in a time of 9:45.32. Senior Jacy Kruzel was fourth, while senior Sara Petrick finished fifth.

The meet was in honor of former longtime University of Florida women’s track and field coach Tom Jones, who passed away on March 21, 2007 at the age of 62 after a courageous battle with cancer. He oversaw the Gator women’s program for nearly half of its existence, serving as head coach for 15 of the program’s 35 season. He guided 71 athletes to 245 All-America honors on the track, while his teams posted a combined 15 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

Photos by Casey Brooke Lawson

Photo Gallery: Tom Jones Memorial Invitational Track Meet, 1/24/09

Senior Carlos Phillips turned in a strong performance, winning the men’s 800-meter run in an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1:49.86 and also running on Florida’s 4x400-meter relay which finished first in a provisional-qualifying time of 3:09.38. Phillips beat his closest competitor in the 800m – unattached runner Kenny Jesen ...

Updated: Jan 24, 2009 10:01pm PST

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