Pollen is in the air, an endless stream of team buses is rolling through the north side of campus, and the cacophonic sound of a starting gun is still ringing through the air. All of this means one thing: it’s track season in Gainesville.
The Florida Gators hosted the 2025 edition of the Pepsi Florida Relays on Friday and Saturday, bringing together a selection of the top talent in the nation across the high school, collegiate, and professional ranks. In their first home meet of two this season, the Gators put on a show.
Hurdles
Florida dominated the high hurdles on Saturday, as freshman Habiba Harris and junior Demaris Waters each had career days to win the men’s and women’s races.
Harris, who became the Jamaican Under-20 champion last summer, delivered a personal best of 12.85 seconds in the prelims of the 100-meter hurdles. About two hours later, she came back and won the final in a commanding time of 12.69 seconds. The tailwind was over the allowable limit, registering at 2.1 meters per second, so this mark won’t count as an official personal best, but it still shows plenty of promise.
When asked if she thought she’d be running this fast two meets into her collegiate career, she kept her response blunt and straight to the point.
“No, no I did not,” Harris said. “But I’ve been listening to coach, I’ve been putting in the work, I knew I could get there. I guess I just got here a little bit faster than I anticipated.”
In the final, Harris handily beat Texas A&M junior Jaiya Covington, who won the NCAA Indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles last month.
Waters’ day followed a similar trajectory, with an all-conditions personal best of 13.26 seconds with an illegal tailwind at his back. In the final, the wind dropped and so did his time, as he took down a high-quality field with a wind-legal mark of 13.21 seconds. The San Jose State transfer is now situated at second on the UF all-time list, only behind Division I record holder Grant Holloway, and he is tied for the fastest time in the world in 2025.
“I sat down with Damaris and I challenged him to trust me,” head coach Mike Holloway said. “Last week, he, and I, and my assistant coach, coach [Yanick] Hart, have all just locked in and created a model for what you saw today… Since Monday, he came out and did everything we asked him to do.”
Throws
Alida van Daalen picked up right where she left off in the invitational section of the women’s discus. After a season-opening win last weekend in Tallahassee, the Dutch junior recorded a best mark of 61.69 meters to finish second. Even though she was nearly two meters behind her mark from FSU Relays, there are still only two other collegians who have bested 61.69 meters this season.
“We live and we learn,” van Daalen said. “I’m still coming back from my shoulder injury, I started full throws like three weeks ago, so we’re still trying to find the timing. The throws that I fouled, I found the timing but fouled out just a little bit in the front… I’d rather have this problem right now than at the end of the season.”
Van Daalen was the top collegian in the field, and she was only beaten by 2023 World Champion Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, who recently began training with Florida throws coach Eric Werksey.
The shoulder injury van Daalen mentioned kept her out of the indoor season and has kept her out of the shot put circle through the first two outdoor meets, but she said her plan is to open in the shot put in two weeks at the Tom Jones Memorial.
Sophomore Leikel Cabrera Gay, who made his UF debut last week with the sixth-best javelin mark in school history, landed another significant personal best this time out. His mark of 77.13 meters finished fourth in the best collegiate competition of the year, as it’s the fourth-best performance in the NCAA. He also leapfrogged 2024 national qualifier Abraham Sargent for the fifth spot on the UF all-time list.
Distance
In the invitational section of the 1500-meters, Tia Wilson and Joe Wester entered the ranks of the ten best performers in program history with top three finishers.
Both runners executed their races in very different ways. Wilson, a junior transfer from England, stuck to the pacer early and then led the field for a majority of the race. When the pack tried to close the gap on her in the final 300 meters, she was able to fight off all but one athlete, crossing the line second in 4:13.92, slotting her in at number six in program history.
“She did two things really well,” assistant distance coach Sam Palmer said. “She was the courageous one out of the group to close the gap [with the pacer] and get it running again… And then I just thought it was awesome the fight she had over the last 300 meters.”
Wester, on the other hand, opted to stay towards the back of the pack, sitting in last when the bell rang for the final lap. Of the eight collegiate athletes in the field, Wester posted the second-fastest final 400-meter split of 56.30 seconds to move all the way up to third at the finish line. 3:43.21 was a very modest personal best for the senior from Jupiter, not even a full second faster than he had run before, but it vaulted him from outside the 10 best performers in school history all the way to number six.
Wester came back on Saturday and shaved nearly a full second off his best 800-meter time, completing two laps in 1:47.34. Also in the 800, senior Ryan Maseman entered the program top 10 list, finishing fourth overall in 1:46.76.
In the open division of the 1500-meters, freshman Gabby Schmidt, competing unattached, took the win in 4:32.85. In her first race since January, she used a commanding final lap to put a significant gap on the rest of the field. Fellow freshman Ava Wyant finished fourth overall in 4:34.99.
Freshman Josh Ruiz, also competing unattached, came out victorious in the men’s 5000-meters, the last event on Friday night. In his first outdoor collegiate race, Ruiz looked like a veteran as he took control of the race in the penultimate lap and never looked back, finishing in 14:25.29.
Jumps
A trio of freshman Gators made their home debuts on the legendary runways of Gainesville this weekend.
On Friday, Alyssa Banales finished fourth in the women’s long jump invitational, recording a best mark of 6.15 meters. The competition was won by Baylor senior Alexis Brown, who became the seventh woman in NCAA history to jump seven meters in any conditions when she soared to a distance of 7.00 meters with a 2.8 meters per second tailwind at her back.
Jaden Lippett, who won the high school competition at this meet last year while competing for Winter Haven High School, was the top finisher in the open division of the men’s triple jump with a distance of 15.53 meters. He had the same best mark as Minnesota freshman Precious Opinion, but his second-best attempt was five centimeters better.
In her first competition since finishing 10th at the Indoor National Championships, finished fourth in a strong women’s triple jump invitational field. The Ontario, Canada, native had a very consistent series, with all five jumps measuring between 13.12 and 13.28 meters.
“They’ve been doing great in training, trusting the process and trying to buy in to learning new things,” jumps coach Nic Petersen said. “I’ve told them all week long, ‘We just have to have more meets. We have to go to track meets and trust the process and keep getting better.’ They all did that this weekend.”
Sprints
Florida’s 400-meter group had a strong showing on Saturday afternoon. Senior Ashton Scwartzman and redshirt senior Reheem Hayles finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the strongest slate of NCAA races at the distance so far this season. Schwartzman set a personal best of 45.76 seconds, while Hayles completed his first race at the distance since June in 46.01.
On the women’s side, sophomore Quincy Penn, an Alabama State transfer, completed her first 400-meter race as a Gator in 53.02 seconds, finishing 13th overall.
A junior transfer from USC, Justin Braun competed in his first individual event as a Gator in the men’s 200-meters. He won his heat in a personal best of 20.65 seconds, finishing eighth overall.
Freshman Jaden Wiley collected a top 10 finish in the men’s 100m, finishing second in his heat and 10th overall with a clocking of 10.30 seconds.
Relays
The Gators ran 4x100-meter relay squads for the first time this season and came away with respectable placings and times. The women’s quartet of Penn, junior Anthaya Charlton, Harris, and freshman Thalia Waters got the baton around in 44.11, finishing in fourth. The men’s team, consisting of Braun, junior Garrett Fox, sophomore Malique Smith-Band, and Wiley placed third in 39.17, making them one of the ten fastest teams in the country.
As it always does, Florida Relays ended with the Gators’ men’s 4x400m-relay dropping a blazing time and finishing towards the front of the pack. Florida ran three relays throughout the weekend, with different foursomes each time.
In the open division prelims, Schwartzman, sophomore Rios Prude Jr., freshman Nick Spikes and sophomore Markevus Jackson posted a collegiate-leading time of 3:03.62. In the final of the open division, Spikes, Smith-Band, Jackson and Fox ran 3:05.33 to finish fourth.
The invitational section of this relay is where the stars came out to play, and the Gators rolled out a lineup of Schwartzman, Braun, Hayles and Prude Jr. Braun and Hayles recorded strong legs to give Florida the advantage heading into the anchor, but Prude Jr. simply couldn’t hold off Texas A&M redshirt senior Auhmad Robinson down the stretch. Coming off a 44.61-second clocking in the open 400-meters earlier, the Aggie split 44.59 seconds en route to a collegiate-leading total time of 3:02.15. Florida crossed the line second in 3:02.72.
“With three different units this weekend, we ran 3:05, 3:03 and 3:02,” said Holloway. “What that speaks to is their trust in the program, their trust in the race models I give them, and more importantly their trust and belief in each other.”
The Gators will stay home for their next meet, as they host the 2025 Tom Jones Memorial on April 18th and 19th.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney
Paul is a junior sports journalism major who is covering the track and field beat in his first semester with the Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys watching commentary Youtube channels and consuming every medium of track and field content imaginable.
