After senior Claudia Francis headlined Day 1 of the Florida Relays with her NCAA-leading time in the 400-meter hurdles, Kunle Fasasi wasted no time making his way to the top of the leaderboards on Friday.
The freshman sprinter dominated the 400-meter dash at Percy Beard Track, taking home the win on his home turf in an NCAA-leading time of 45.43 seconds.
“It was really exciting, because I kind of dreamed about it. I really wanted it to happen, I didn’t want to lose here,” Fasasi said. “It is my first Pepsi Florida Relays, my first home meet, but I really wanted that win today.”
But Fasasi wasn’t the only Gator athlete to separate from the pack at home.
Junior Andres Arroyo qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after posting a time of 1:45.78 in the 800-meter dash, the third-best time in UF outdoor history.
“Since last August I have had a paper in my room saying ‘1:45.80 #RIO’, ” said Arroyo, who will represent his home country of Puerto Rico. “And everyday I put it right next to my door so I would wake up and see that paper. I have always wanted to hit that time… Everything today feels surreal that I broke it.”
Shayla Sanders, last week’s NCAA Division I Women’s National Athlete of the Week after her NCAA-leading time of 11.13 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the Gold & Cardinal Challenge on March 26, continued her success in the event, coming in first place with a time of 11.15.
The women continued winning in the 400-meter dash, with seniors Robin Reynolds (52.09) and Kyra Jefferson (52.11) going 1-2 and posting the No. 2 and No. 3 Division 1 times.
“It felt pretty good, especially coming off an injury indoor. I just really wanted to come out here and try to do better, self improvement, is what I was working on,” Reynolds said. “I felt that I did good with that. I am just hoping to build on that. Today was a good day and I was happy with the result.”
It was especially special because of the relationship Reynolds and Jefferson have.
“She is my bestfriend, so it is good competition, friendly competition. We are always pushing each other on and off the field,” Reynolds said. “It was great that we could go out here and give a great show to everyone at Florida Relays, so it was a special moment.”
The Florida's prelim 4x400 relay team made up of Najee Glass, Hugh Graham Jr., Nick Uruburu and Fasai topped not only its heat, but placed first for the entire competition with a time of 3:06.61, qualifying for Saturday’s final.
In the 200-meter dash, Ryan Clark ran to second place with a time of 20.59.
The Gators also had three throwers representing them on Friday. In the women’s discus throw, sophomore Lloydricia Cameron placed fifth with a throw of 54.41 meters. In the javelin throw, Marija Vucenovic secured third place with a throw of 55.79 meters, while teammate Megan Reed (42.03 meters) placed fifteenth out of a field of 22 athletes.
Florida ended the day with the 3000-meter steeplechase, where Devin McDermott finished ninth with a time of 10:44.40, the seventh-best time in program history.
“I thought that everyone did a wonderful job,” Florida coach Mike Holloway said. “We have really been challenging everybody to be a lot more focused and a lot more driven, and I saw that today. I just challenged them to come out here and perform like the team that we know that we are, and they did that.”
Florida’s final day of competition at the Florida Pepsi Relays beings Saturday with the women’s shuttle hurdle relay at noon.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
Kunle Fasasi races in the 400-meter dash during the Florida Relays on April 1, 2016, at the Percy Beard Track.
