Ten Gators made their collegiate debut and the Florida men’s and women’s track and field teams won five events to kick off their indoor seasons on Saturday at the Orange and Purple Classic in Clemson, South Carolina.
Versatile sophomore Grant Holloway swept both rounds of the 60-meter hurdles, winning the final round with a time of 7.69 seconds. Holloway won SEC and NCAA titles in the same event last year.
He also finished third in the 300-meter, behind junior Kunle Fasasi and freshman Benjamin Lobo Vedel, who tied Holloway’s school record of 32.80 seconds to win.
Senior Lloydricia Cameron took first place in the shot put with a mark of 17.32 meters. Cameron also won an SEC title in the shot put in May 2017.
Florida dominated in the weight throw, with redshirt junior AJ McFarland (first, 21.24 meters) and freshman Thomas Mardal (second, 20.49 meters) leading the way on the men’s side while redshirt junior Jontavia Dykes was runner-up with a toss of 17.44 meters in the women’s competition.
Redshirt junior Harry Glasser had UF’s fifth first-place finish in the pole vault.
Senior KeAndre Bates, an SEC and NCAA champion in the long jump, finished fourth on Saturday, but Gators coach Mike Holloway wasn’t too concerned.
“With the bad weather across the country, it was hard for some people to train while they were at home,” he said in a release. “I’m not worried about that. I wanted to see effort, I wanted to see focus. We pretty much saw that across the board today.”
A story from floridagators.com contributed to this report.
Follow Andrew Huang on Twitter @AndrewJHuang and contact him at ahuang@alligator.org.
Florida track and field coach Mike Holloway watched five of his athletes win events on Saturday at the Orange and Purple Classic in Clemson, South Carolina. “I wanted to see effort. I wanted to see focus,” he said. “We pretty much saw that across the board today.”
