The No. 1 Gators are one day away from winning their first Southeastern Conference Indoor Championship since 2004, but they’re far from a shoo-in to clinch Sunday.
Florida currently leads the SECs with 41 points, but No. 5 Arkansas is right behind them with 39 points heading into the final day of competition.
“Actually, I thought we got about five more points than I thought we’d have, so I think we’re good,” head coach Mike Holloway said.
One athlete who helped propel the Gators to their current lead was senior Kemal Mesic, who won his second consecutive SEC Indoor Championship in the shot put.
Mesic’s throw (19.53m/63-9) was not only an automatic-qualifying mark, but also a new school record.
“It was really interesting right up through the last throw,” Mesic said. “I was third up until the fifth throw. It was a battle out there.”
Another Gator who claimed an event victory Saturday was junior Gray Horn, who won his first career SEC title in the heptathlon with 5,816 points.
Horn, who led with 3,212 points after the first four events Friday, won the 60-meter hurdles (8.00 seconds) and set a personal record in pole vault (4.80m/15-9).
In addition to Mesic and Horn, junior distance runner Dumisane Hlaselo won an individual SEC Championship for the men’s team in the 3,000-meter run (8:00.43).
Hlaselo, who ran the first sub-four-minute mile (3:56.84) in school history at the Flotrack Husky Classic, edged Ben Cheruiyot of Auburn (8:01.38) by just 0.95 seconds.
Meanwhile, the No. 21 women’s team currently ranks seventh with 16 points heading into the final day of the meet.
However, the defending SEC Indoor Champions did produce one individual conference title from junior Fidela James in the 20-pound weight throw (19.83m/65-0.75).
In other preliminary events Saturday, 13 Gators (nine men, four women) qualified for finals meets Sunday, including sophomore Tony McQuay, who ran the second–fastest NCAA time in the 200-meter sprint (20.65 seconds) this season.
“I’m very excited about today,” Holloway said. “We talked a lot about matching the passion and intensity of this competition and I thought we did that.
