The Tom Jones Memorial Classic was created to commemorate the former Florida track and field coach. The current Gators used the meet to make some memories of their own.
UF athletes won 11 events and set 16 personal-best marks in the home meet at Percy Beard Track. The meet gave the Gators another opportunity to prepare for the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championship Meet in May.
The meet’s highlight was the men’s 400-meter dash. Senior Calvin Smith won it in a personal-best and world-leading time of 44.81. He beat World Championship medalists Tyson Gay and Renny Quow while slicing off .15 seconds from his previous best.
Senior Mariam Kevkhishvili set a personal-best mark in the outdoor shot put with a throw of 18.46 meters. It was the second-best throw in school history.
Fellow senior Shara Proctor won the women’s triple jump with a distance of 13.29 meters.
It was the last home meet for Smith, a 15-time All-American, Kevkhishvili, a four-time NCAA champion, and Proctor, a four-time SEC champion.
“When our seniors like Calvin [Smith] and Mariam [Kevkhishvili] joined this program, it wasn’t at the level we are at today,” UF coach Mike Holloway said. “They believed in what we were doing and you can see the results of that today.”
Jeremy Postin won the men’s hammer throw with a personal-best distance of 60.59 meters. It broke his own school record and continued Postin’s record-setting freshman season.
Javelin thrower Evelien Dekkers, also competing in her final home meet, won the event with a throw of 52.12 meters. Keely Medeiros was second in the women’s shot put and finished third in the discus.
Junior Shot putter Kemal Mesic landed the best distance among collegiate competitors with his 19.38-meter heave.
UF went one-two in the men’s long jump with two-time defending NCAA indoor triple jump champion Christian Taylor winning with a distance of 7.51 meters, nearly half of a meter better than freshman Omar Craddock.
The Gators also put up the top two marks in the men’s 4x100-meter relay. The “A” team won in 39.06 seconds while the “B” team finished in 39.31.
UF placed second through fifth in the men’s 800-meter run, lead by John Mitchell’s second-place run of 1:50:52.
Michael Anderson won the men’s steeplechase in 9:09:48 while Julie Northrup finished second in the women’s 1,500-meter run with a personal-best time of 4:28:90.
