Florida is looking to regain some of the program’s lost swagger this week.
Coming off a successful meet at home on Sunday, the Gators women’s track team will travel to College Station, Texas, to compete in the Texas A&M Challenge at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
The meet, which will feature six teams from the Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference, will be a test for a UF team looking to improve from last year. Coach Mike Holloway said the coaches had a meeting with some of the team’s leaders to discuss motivation and pride in their program.
“We didn’t have a very good year with the women last year,” Holloway said. “We are trying to get them back up there, in the upper echelon, where they belong.”
Five of the Gators’ opponents at this week’s meet, including an experienced and top-ranked Oregon squad, are listed in the Top 25 women’s indoor rankings. Florida is not ranked.
Holloway said the women believe they have the ability and talent to be a top-25-caliber team. Many members of the women’s squad were high school All-Americans and competed on World Junior teams.
The women have up-and-coming, young talent that will be competing this week, such as sophomore sprinter Darshay Davis and freshman high jumper Taylor Burke. Both competed at the Gator Invite last week, when Davis finished fifth in the 55-meter sprint, and Burke won the high jump event with the fourth-highest jump in school history.
“I’m really excited. It’s definitely something I’ve never been exposed to,” Burke said. “So I am excited to get there and just compete.”
Current standout veterans, hurdler Ugonna Ndu and throwers Keely Medeiros and Fidela James, will have to perform well in their events for the women to have a successful day.
Holloway said the women’s team is encouraged by the success of the No. 2 men’s team.
“There is a focus, there is a determination,” Holloway said. “They don’t want to let the men have all the fun.”
