The Gators know how to put on quite an encore.
No. 1 Florida rallied from a 16-point deficit to win their second
consecutive national title Saturday at the NCAA Indoor
Championships in College Station, Texas.
Through the first eight events, the Gators (18 points) trailed
first-place No. 5 Brigham Young (34 points) and No. 8 Florida State
(24).
However, the final nine saw UF rack up 34 points to bring their
overall score to 52, 12 points better than second-place and host
No. 4 Texas A&M.
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“We came in as big favorites,
had some adversity,” head coach Mike Holloway said. “But we
overcame it, and we’re national champions again.”
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With this weekend’s victory, Florida joins Kansas (1969-70), UTEP
(1974-76), and Arkansas (1984-95, 1997-00 and 2005-06) as one of
only four schools to repeat as NCAA Indoor Champions.
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The Gators were boosted by the individual efforts of individual
national champions junior Will Claye (triple jump) and sophomore
Jeff Demps (60m dash), who earned UF 10 points each.
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Both Claye (17.32m/56-10) and Demps (6.53 seconds) set school
records in their respective events.
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“It’s a nice track,” Demps said. “ (But) it took me a while to
adjust to the surface.”
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In addition to setting a school record, Claye also set the NCAA
meet record with his mark in the triple jump.
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Claye received All-America honors for his triple jump victory, as
well as his second-place finish in the long jump Friday.
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Joining Claye as All-Americans were Demps (60m dash), junior
Christian Taylor (triple jump), junior Dumisane Hlaselo (men’s mile
run) and junior Gray Horn, who set a school record with 5,890
points in the heptathlon.
