Coach Mike Holloway couldn’t hide his disappointment after the NCAA Indoor Championships.
He knew there were no excuses for his talented athletes coming out flat this weekend.
The Gators came into the championship in Birmingham, Alabama, with the No. 1-ranked women’s and the No. 3-ranked men’s teams, both senior-heavy squads expecting to benefit from their leadership and experience.
But after their final indoor meet of the season — with two teams laden with elite talent — all the Gators accomplished was embarrassing their coach.
The men finished in seventh place with 21 points, failing to make the top three in indoors for the first time since 2008. The women finished in a tie for 14th.
"It was an incredibly disappointing weekend, almost to the point of embarrassment. It’s one of those things where I’d love to tell you what happened," Holloway said in a release after the meet. "I have no clue."
Both teams lost to Oregon, whose men’s team also won the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championship and swept the competition on both sides.
Saturday also marked just the second time since 2009 that a Florida men’s athlete did not win an indoor national championship.
To add insult to a men’s team that has battled injuries all season, senior Arman Hall was unable to compete in the 200-meter dash and was forced to sit out on the 4x400 relay due to injury after finishing fourth in the 400-meter dash.
But now that a disappointing indoor season is in the past, the Gators have a clean slate as they enter the second part of track and field season: Outdoor competition.
Last season, the men’s team was the runner up in the NCAA Outdoor Championship for the third national meet in a row to Oregon. The women finished eighth, with Oregon also claiming the title.
With eight weeks and seven meets until the conference outdoor championship on May 12, Holloway will try and figure out what went wrong this weekend, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
"At the end of the day, bottoming out with everybody, I’m the head coach," Holloway said. "I’ve got to figure out what’s wrong. All I can say is that we will be better outdoors. We have to be.
"We are a much better team than we showed. On the men’s side we got a little dinged up in places, but we still had to step up and do better. I’m just very, very disappointed."
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
UF coach Mike Holloway smiles during the 2015 Florida Relays at James G. Pressly Stadium.
