Junior Ebony Eutsey wasn’t happy when coach Mike Holloway suggested she add short sprints to her training routine during the fall semester.
But after some convincing, Holloway got through to Eutsey.
“I didn’t used to like sprinting, but since coach Holloway gave me a talk about the more you sprint, the faster you are in the 400 meter and then that carries over into the 200 meter as well, I was like, ‘OK, get your mind right, you need to do this,’” Eutsey said. “I feel very comfortable doing it now.”
Although Eutsey now enjoys the change in her training, she said the transition wasn’t easy. Eutsey, who specializes in the 400m, said she’s always struggled with sprinting. Adding 60m sprints to her routine was difficult.
“It’s always been so hard for me to really sprint fast like a true sprinter, so it was kind of hard for me to follow through with it,” Eutsey said. “But then, as time went by, I started to understand that this would help my 400-meter time, so it turned out to be great.”
Eutsey said she’s been finishing her races strong thanks to the new training.
Coaches complimented Eutsey on her finish in the 200m at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala.
Eutsey came from the back of the group after a late start and finished third with a time of 24.12.
“We’ve been working really hard with Ebony to get her focused on getting her speed better, and for some reason she didn’t want to do a lot of sprinting,” Holloway said. “But I finally got her to understand that if you want to be a great quarter-miler, then your 200 has to get better. I think what you saw [Saturday] was a byproduct of that.”
Although Eutsey is sitting out today’s meet to give the underclassmen more opportunities to compete, Florida will have 33 athletes competing in the Gator Invitational. The meet starts at 2 p.m. with the men’s 35-pound weight throw.
“Everyone has enough knowledge to know what to do when a meet comes,” Eutsey said.
“This is the most powerful team that I’ve been on since I’ve been here. From the short sprints all the way up to the distance. I feel like our team is young but we still have talent that’s unheard of.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
