If junior distance runner Dumisane Hlaselo was a song, he would be
ready for radio play right now.
Hlaselo ran a very Top 40 friendly 3:56.84 time in the mile run,
qualifying for the national meet and becoming the first Gator in
school history to run a sub-four minute mile.
Freshman distance runner Cory McGee was the other Florida athlete
to automatically qualify for the NCAA meet at the Flotrack Husky
Classic, recording a personal record (4:36.53) in the women’s mile
run.
“Definitely the two highlights were the two automatic qualifiers in
Cory McGee and Dumisane Hlaselo,” distance coach Todd Morgan said.
“A lot of good things happened in about a 15-minute span. It was
terrific.”
And while Seattle was the site for a historic achievement, it
wasn’t the only place in the country that hosted qualifying Gators
this weekend.
Junior jumper and Bowerman Award candidate Will Claye added another
automatic-qualifying mark to his resume this season.
Claye posted a 7.95m/16-1 mark in the long jump, good enough for
fourth place at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas.
“I was very pleased with Will Claye qualifying in the long jump,”
head coach Mike Holloway said.
After qualifying in the long jump Friday, Claye capped his weekend
with a season-best 17.02m/55-10.25 mark in the triple jump, giving
him the event victory over second-place finisher and teammate
Christian Taylor (16.77m/55-0.25). Claye’s jump was the second-best
indoor triple jump in school history.
In addition to Claye, the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.,
saw sprinters Jeff Demps and Tony McQuay post scores that
automatically qualified them for the national meet.
Demps placed second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.58
seconds, while McQuay, a sophomore, ran the 400-meter dash in 49.95
seconds, earning him third place.
“We have always known Tony is a special athlete,” Holloway said.
“He has trained hard and had the second-fastest time of his
life.”
McQuay and sophomore Leonardo Seymore ran times of 20.88 seconds
and 21.16 seconds in the 200-meter dash, respectively.
Both sprinters narrowly missed the automatic-qualifying mark of
20.83 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Iowa State Classic played host to another Gator who
will be making the season-end trip to College Station, Tex.
In Ames, Iowa, senior Kemal Mesic punched his ticket to the
national meet with a third-place finish in the shot put.
Mesic recorded a throw that measured 19.3m/63-4, which put him just
0.21 meters off the winning mark.
Florida’s other competing shot putter, Fidela James, finished fifth
in the women’s shot put with a personal-best throw of
15.34m/50-4.
“Both Kemal and Fidela [James] did a really good job today,”
associate head coach Steve Lemke said. “I feel like we are right
where we need to be heading into SECs.”
