After his women’s squad captured a Southeastern Conference Indoor title and the men’s team finished second, coach Mike Holloway’s track teams will head to the NCAA Indoor Championships on a high note.
Holloway was named the USTFCCCA South Region Women’s 2014 Indoor Coach of the Year on Monday after leading his top-ranked program to a SEC Indoor championship.
Now, he faces the task of taking 23 athletes who qualified for nationals to the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M.
Included in that list of athletes are SEC Indoor Men’s Runner of the Year Arman Hall, SEC Indoor Women’s Co-Runner of the Year Cory McGee and SEC Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year Rebekah Greene.
In addition to their SEC honors, Hall and McGee were appointed by the USTFCCCA as South Region Indoor Men’s and Women’s Athletes of the Year.
“I think it goes back to recruiting,” Holloway said. “The big thing with recruiting is we don’t ever want to be in a quote-unquote ‘rebuilding mode.’ We always want to be reloading.
“If you look across the board and you look at the people that have qualified for the national meet on both the men’s and women’s teams we have people who are successful.”
With the NCAA championships beginning Friday, the Gators have a chance to add to their combined four national indoor titles.
Hall and Eddie Lovett highlighted the Men’s First-Team All-SEC team while eight others made the second team, including Hugh Graham Jr. and Dedric Dukes.
The women’s first team had nine athletes from Florida, including McGee, Ebony Eutsey and Ciarra Brewer.
The Gators also had five first-year athletes named to the All-Freshman Team.
Departing out west Tuesday night in preparation for national competition, No. 1 Florida is seeking better results after the men finished second and the women finished a paltry 13th.
“There’s not a person that is going to get on that bus to go to Albuquerque when we leave here to go to the airport who doesn’t believe that they belong in the meet,” Holloway said. “That’s the big key.”
Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence
