Four college athletes completed the men’s 110 meter hurdle on Saturday at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic, including sophomore Eddie Lovett. The rest were professionals.
But instead of letting the tough completion get to him, Lovett stuck with them.
“My coach told me that there was going to be about two or three college guys and mostly pros, so I knew I would have to push myself to make it to the finals,” Lovett said. “Basically I went with the same game plan as always, get out, try to keep my technique and stay tall toward the end.”
In the prelims, Lovett finished second in his heat setting a personal best of 13.57. His time beat eight of the 13 professionals who competed, making him the only college athlete in the finals.
“In the finals, my mindset was get out with the pros and try to stick with them. I did basically the same thing I did in the prelims, but just tried to do it a little more aggressive,” Lovett said. “Basically it was just stick in there with the pros and give them a run for their money.”
In addition to competing against professionals in the finals, Lovett had to go against big names such as David Oliver, who won the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics, David Payne, who won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics and Ryan Braithwaite, the 2009 World Champion.
Lovett was able to maintain his composure and finished the finals in seventh place with a time of 13.54, breaking the personal record he set only an hour prior.
“In the beginning of the race, runners take your mark, I’m always nervous. That just comes with it,” Lovett said. “You want anxiety, but you want use it toward the race and aggression toward the race.”
Like Lovett, the rest of the Gators also had a solid performance on Saturday. Jeff Demps (100m), Keely Medeiros (shot put), Stipe Zunic (javelin throw), JL Hines (3,000m), Marquis Dendy (triple jump), Jeremy Postin (hammer throw), Taylor Burke (high jump), Genevieve LaCaze (1,500m), Cory McGee (800m) the women’s 4x400m relay team, the men’s 4x400m relay team and the men’s 4x100 relay team all turned in wins for Florida.
“Overall you look top to bottom we had a lot of great things happen today,” coach Mike Holloway said. “Anytime we have an opportunity to compete at home and obviously at a meet where we’re honoring coach Jones, we need to perform well and at a high level, and I think we did that today.”
