Following a solid start at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships, the top-ranked Gators failed to show their potential.
Through the second day of competition at Lexington Ky., the men’s squad began their conference showing highlighted by Kyle Strawn in the hammer throw and Eddie Garcia in the 10,000-meter run, but their performances didn’t hold up.
The men sit at a tie for fourth place with Alabama at 11 points and have fallen well behind of an opportunity to earn an SEC title due to Georgia’s dominating 48-point outing.
“Overall, the biggest thing I see is we don’t have the pride and the passion that we usually show at these championships,” coach Mike Holloway said.
“I think we’re letting the weather bother us a little bit, but the thing we have to understand is the weather is affecting everybody, not just us.”
Strawn and Garcia held their own as they put up top finishes. Strawn finished third in the hammer with a 64.61-meter throw, and Garcia with a time of 29:57.21 for a fourth-place finish.
The women shared the same outcome, as they weren’t able to improve from their Day 1 one outing.
After earning a fourth place spot through Day 1, the women have now fallen to a three-way tie for fifth place with Missouri and Texas A&M.
The best outing for the women’s team was Rebekah Greene with a 2:08.71 time in the 800-meter run, which wasn’t a personal record but was good for eighth and a qualifying slot in the final heat.
Georgia also leads in the women standings with 32 points as it continues its flat-out dominance on both sides.
The No. 1 Gators have an opportunity to rebound at the final day of conference championships if they can place high in all events that remain in order to at least reach for a podium finish.
“We have to get refocused because this is not how Florida competes at championships,” Holloway said. “That’s on me, I’m the head coach and I have to get it figured out between now and tomorrow when we get back out here.”
Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence
