In the final day of the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships, Florida’s No. 2 ranked men finished as runners-up to No. 1 ranked and host team Arkansas. Florida’s No. 10 women finished 13th with No. 4 ranked Oregon taking the women’s title.
The Gators’ top performer on Saturday was junior hurdler Eddie Lovett. With a time of 7.50 seconds, Lovett’s performance was a personal record, school record, NCAA Indoor Championship meet record, and 4th fastest time in NCAA history–all good for a 2013 national title in the men’s 60m hurdles.
Also among Gators who set personal bests on Saturday were sophomore jumper Ciarra Brewer and senior jumper Omar Craddock.
Brewer finished third in the women’s triple jump with a distance of 13.69m. She opened with a personal record of 13.44m and then bested that with her jump of 13.69m later in the event.
With a distance of 16.80m, Craddock finished second in the men’s triple jump. Also competing in the men’s triple jump was sophomore Marquis Dendy, who won a national title on Friday in the men’s long jump with a distance of 8.28 meters. Dendy finished 4th on Saturday.
Florida also fared well in the distance events on Saturday. Junior runners Sean Obinwa and Agata Strausa each had season bests in the men’s 800m and women’s mile, respectively.
Obinwa’s time of 1:47.81 earned him a 4th place finish, while Strausa’s time of 4:36.91 was good for a 3rd place finish. With those results, Florida managed to rack up a combined 11 points in the men’s and women’s distance events.
In the 2013 NCAA indoor season’s concluding events, both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay squads posted season bests for Florida as well.
The women (Ebony Eutsey, Destinee Gause, Robin Reynolds, and Lanie Whittaker) placed 4th with a time of 3:31.54. By adding 5 points in the relays, the Gator women finished with 17 points overall.
By recording a time of 3:03.71, Florida’s men (Najee Glass, Hugh Graham, Jr., Arman Hall, and Dedric Dukes) were runners-up to eventual meet-winner Arkansas by .21 seconds. The 8 points earned by the men’s relay squad gave the Gator men 59 points overall–15 points behind the Razorbacks.
The 59 points scored by the men is the most points a UF team has tallied since 1988 and is the third-most in UF history–the most under Florida coach Mike Holloway.
Junior Eddie Lovett (left) races in the 55m hurdles at the Gator Invitational in the O’Connell Center.
