Florida’s track and field teams will travel to Arkansas this weekend for the first of two times this season to face off against some of the top teams in the nation.
The Gators head in to the Razorback Invitational with the men’s team ranked No. 2 in the nation, and the women’s team No. 6 after strong showings at the Hokie and Clemson Invitationals last week. Aside from Arkansas, which holds the No. 1 women’s team and No. 12 men’s team, UF will be going up against LSU (No. 8 men; No. 9 women), Oregon (No. 10 women; No. 17 men), Kentucky (No. 8 women), Iowa State, Kansas State, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State and Purdue.
The field for both horizontal jumps will be stacked at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center. Florida seniors Yanis David and Asa Garcia will both begin their triple jump seasons on Saturday against Kentucky's Marie-Josee Excel, all three of whom are ranked in the top five in the nation.
David was named SEC Women’s Athlete of the Week after a 6.45-meter long jump last weekend, which tied the best mark in the country this season.
Junior Clayton Brown will also be competing in the triple jump for the Gators. Brown won the event at the SEC Indoor Championships a season ago and finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Junior Grant Holloway will open his long jump season against LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison and Rayvon Grey, both of whom are ranked among the top 5 in the nation. Holloway was named SEC Co-Runner of the Week for his performance in the 60-meter hurdles and 200 meters. He will run the 60 meters again this weekend -- sans the hurdles -- against his teammates Ryan Clark and Hakim Sani Brown.
The Razorback Invitational will begin for the Gators on Friday afternoon at 1:25 p.m. with the Women’s Pentathlon 60-meter hurdles and conclude Saturday evening at 5:40 p.m. with the Women’s 4x400 relay.
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
The Gators head in to the Razorback Invitational with the men’s team ranked No. 2 in the nation and the women’s team No. 6 after strong showings at the Hokie and Clemson Invitationals last week.
