After almost 24 hours of competition spread over two days at the Pepsi Florida Relays, the Gators will finally have a weekend off.
Although Florida will not be competing in a meet this weekend, athletes like sophomore Darshay Davis will still be hitting the track hard at practice.
“This is our last week where we can really train hard,” said coach Mike Holloway after the Florida Relays. “We have to get after this next week and get everybody focused. We’ll head to Drake (Relays), Mt. Sac and Stanford later on, so we’re going to be all over the place for the next month.”
At the Florida Relays, Davis competed in four events: 4x100m, sprint medley relay, 100m and 200m. She finished in the top five for her four events including winning the sprint medley relay with a time of 3:44.05. This is the second year in a row that Davis was a part of the first-place sprint medley relay team at the Florida Relays.
“I feel like it’s necessary at Florida Relays that we have to show out at home and give the crowd what they want,” Davis said.
Despite having a great weekend overall, Davis is still looking for her first individual win outdoors, and having the weekend off won’t stop her from maintaining her focus on that goal.
“This week I plan on attacking practices aggressive and as intense as possible,” Davis said.
Davis has only had one individual career win as a Gator about two months ago during the indoor season at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet. She took first place in the 200m with a then indoor personal record time of 23.91.
However, with the way Davis has been performing so far this outdoor season it shouldn’t be long until she gets her first outdoor win.
“After last weekend’s performance I feel like I found a lot of confidence in myself that I think matched with my talent that will push me to actually take an individual title,” Davis said. “Now I plan on winning more so than taking a third place finish during this outdoor season.”
The sophomore has improved her 100m time slightly from last year’s personal record of 11.53 to 11.33, which she ran at the Texas Relays. Davis also brought her time in the 200m down to a 23.03 this weekend, giving her a new personal record. Davis’ constant improvements will be a key factor in motivating her to an individual win.
“I feel like I got really close [at Florida Relays], but I’m still very hungry this week, more than I was last week,” Davis said. “I’m trying to really prepare to do something major.”
