Despite inclement weather that hung over the 2015 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships, the Florida men’s track and field team didn’t let any rain fall on its parade.
On Saturday night, the No. 3 Florida men’s track and field team became the first Mike Holloway-coached squad to sweep both the SEC indoor and outdoor meets, as the team left Starkville, Mississippi, as SEC outdoor champions.
Florida entered the weekend ranked behind two SEC opponents—Texas A&M and LSU, respectively—and proved themselves worthy to be in the conversation for the nation’s top spot after scoring more than 30 team-points than both the Aggies and Tigers.
The men entered the final day of the conference meet with just a three-point lead over No. 9 Georgia—highlighted by SEC individual title wins from Stipe Zunic in the shot put, Marquis Dendy in the long jump and Eddie Garcia in the 10,000-meter run.
Saturday saw the Gators pull away from the pack, as the team scored 80.5 points to amass a total of 130.5 team-points for the meet.
Dendy helped lead the way during the final day in Starkville, capturing his second SEC triple jump title of the year. His 17.35-meter jump set a new SEC record.
This year, Dendy has swept both the triple and long jump events at the SEC indoors, NCAA indoors and now, last weekend’s SEC outdoor meet.
Saturday’s triple jump victory comes one day after Dendy passed on two of his six attempts in the long jump event.
"I had a big chip on my shoulder coming into today with all the fouls I had yesterday," Dendy said in a release. "So it feels great to set the SEC record and I feel really good about today."
Senior sprinter Dedric Dukes also pitched in on Saturday, winning the 200-meter title in just under 20 seconds, clocking in a 19.99-second mark.
Dukes was also part of the men’s 4x4—along with Nick Uruburu, Najee Glass and Arman Hall—that clinched the SEC title with a NCAA-leading 3:01.60-minute mark.
The two titles over the weekend was a vast improvement from the 2014 conference outdoor meet, which ended in zero victories for Dukes.
"Last year I came here and fell a little bit short, so to come here and win as a senior means a lot to me," Dukes said in a release.
While the women’s side did not win the SEC championship, the Gators gathered two SEC titles during the weekend—one individual title and one relay title.
In her first SEC outdoor meet, senior sprinter Kyra Jefferson completed her sweep of the 200-meter event in SEC competition with a 22.39-second victory on Saturday.
The result stands as the best time in UF history.
Jefferson also took part in the 4x400-meter relay contingent that won the SEC title in the event on the same day.
The foursome of Jefferson, Robin Reynolds, Destinee Gause and Claudia Francis finished the race in 3:27.84—good for the top mark in the nation.
With five of the six individual men’s and women’s titles won by seniors in their last SEC Championships of their college careers, Dukes summed up the performance with four simple words:
"Last one, best one."
Follow Kyle Brutman on Twitter @KBrut13
Najee Glass races in the 4x400-meter dash to close out the 2015 Florida Relays on April 4 at the Percy Beard Track.
