Last season, senior Kyra Jefferson watched as UF’s men’s track and field team won the SEC Indoor Championship, while her women’s team fell to a second-place finish against Arkansas.
However, this year’s women’s team is stronger, and Jefferson said it’s ready to bring back a championship to Gainesville this weekend.
“I feel like my team has always had the abilities,” Jefferson, the women's 2015 200m SEC Champion and 400m runner-up, said. “We have always had the strength, but this year we are a lot stronger. We are a lot faster, we jump farther. We have more confidence in each other and in ourselves, so I think it is all about timing it perfectly at SECs.”
The men, on the other hand, have the difficult task of attempting to repeat as SEC Indoor Champions.
Senior Arman Hall — one of the team’s anchors — knows that the team's injuries this season combined with the high level of competition will make for an uphill battle.
“It is going to be a really tough challenge for everyone for the 60 through the 5k, I think. ... All the runners in the SEC can qualify to nationals, we all know that,” Hall said. “It is going to be hard. I find it fun, I love great competition. I love facing people that I feel that I can go my all with and maybe that can beat me. It just makes me go to a different level.”
In last year’s competition, the then-No. 1 men’s team saw success in the long jump and triple jump from then-senior jumper Marquis Dendy, who won his third SEC indoor title that weekend. Then-junior sprinter Najee Glass (45.37), then-junior Hall (45.97) and then-sophomore Nick Uruburu also finished in first, fourth and sixth in the 400 meter, respectively.
This weekend, the No. 10 men will be facing five teams in the top-10, including No. 1 Arkansas, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 8 Georgia.
The No. 3 women will be facing three teams inside the top-10, including No. 2 Georgia, No. 4 Arkansas and No. 8 Tennessee.
Both teams are looking to win their ninth indoor SEC titles. The men’s team also has the opportunity to join the 1975-’76 and 1987-’88 teams as the only other teams in program history to win the SEC Indoor Championships in back-to-back seasons.
Competition begins today at 5 p.m. for the Gators with the men’s pole vault final with sophomore Harry Glasser and redshirt senior Jared Watkins.
“The best in the country, some of the best athletes in the world,” UF’s coach Mike Holloway said on the level of competition the Gators will be facing. “Some people have labeled the SEC for years as the Olympic conference and with good reason. A lot of Olympic champions and Olympic medalists have come out of this conference..There is no meet better than the SEC Championship.”
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
UF’s Najee Glass races the final leg of the 4x400-meter relay to close out the 2015 Florida Relays on April 4, 2015, at the Percy Beard Track.
