After a record-breaking meet for many athletes last week in South Carolina, the Florida Track and Field team travels to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Tyson Invitational inside the Randal Tyson Track Center.
This meet will be the last before the SEC Championships in Fayetteville in less than two weeks.
For the second meet in a row, many Gators will be making their first appearance of the year. Three cross country runners who competed in the FSU Winter Classic last Friday will join the team. Imogen Barrett will compete in the women’s mile while Caden Monk will run the 3000m. Teammate Trevor Foley will close out the individual events on Saturday in the 5000m.
The most notable debut this season will be none other than Florida 100m record holder Raymond Ekevwo. The senior was scheduled to run last week but didn’t compete. The Nigeria native will run the 60m and topped the NCAA leaderboards last year, running a 6.53.
Florida has competed in two meets this season. Both times Talitha Diggs has collected SEC Freshman of the Week honors. The Pennsylvania native will run back the 200m Saturday after she competed in it for the first meet of the season. She won the 400m at last week’s South Carolina Invitational, leading the NCAA at 52.34.
The two other Florida runners who collected SEC honors this week will look to build on their strong start before the conference championship. Thomas Mardal, who will be back on the field, was named the SEC Field Athlete of the Week after throwing a nation-leading 23.14m in the weight throw.
Co-SEC Runner of the Week Joseph Fahnbulleh ran the third fastest 200m this year last week and will continue in the event Saturday afternoon.
Despite all the high performing talent on Florida’s roster this year, the competition on Friday and Saturday will be the toughest it has faced.
All eight schools are in the USTFCCCA top 15 including the host: No. 1 Arkansas. Other rosters are rounded out by No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 4 Texas, No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Alabama, No. 14 Florida State and No. 15 Oregon.
Both days of the meet can be streamed on SEC Network+.
Contact Myles Herbert at mherbert@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @myles_herbert
