Taylor Manson and Cory Poole’s debut outdoor seasons are still alive.
The pair of freshmen will compete in Bloomington, Indiana, on June 15-17 for the USATF Junior Championships. They’ll try to advance to the IAAF World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland, beginning July 10.
In her first season as a Gator, Manson cracked the program’s Outdoor All-Time Top 10 list with her 400-meter time of 51.84 (tied for ninth) set at the NCAA East Preliminary on May 25.
The East Lansing, Michigan, native also ran on Florida’s 4x400 team – including junior Sharrika Barnett, freshman Nikki Stephens and senior Taylor Sharpe – that ran the second-fastest time in program history (3:27.30) at the SEC Outdoor Championships on May 13.
At this weekend’s USATF Juniors, Manson will compete in the 400-meter race.
Poole was a silver medalist at last year’s Outdoor Junior Championships in the 400-meter hurdles. He’ll return in that event and in the 110-meter hurdles at this year’s competition.
Poole landed on the Gators’ Outdoor All-Time Top 10 list twice in his first outdoor season. In the 400-meter hurdles, he clocked a time of 50.09 for the No.-10 spot, and he recorded a time of 13.68 for the 10th spot in the 110-meter hurdles. Both entries were made at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
Manson, along with 20 other Gators, were named USTFCCCA Division I First-Team All-Americans following the men’s and women’s respective second and fifth-place finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last week.
Among those on the list are sophomore Grant Holloway, who was one of seven Division I athletes to earn three First-Team All-America honors.
You can follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames or contact her at athames@alligator.org.
Sophomore hurdler Grant Holloway was one of the many UF track and field athletes who were named All-Americans.
