COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Florida men’s track and field team posted its highest indoor team finish since 2005, placing second Saturday in the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships at Texas A&M’s Gilliam Indoor Track and Field Stadium.
Individually, the Gators came home with two individual crowns. Christian Taylor of Fayetteville, Ga., won the men’s triple jump. In the women’s portion of the meet, Mariam Kevkhishvili of Tbilisi, Georgia, captured the shot put.
Oregon claimed the men’s title with 54 points, 18 more than the Gators, who edged out Florida State (32 points) and Southeastern Conference rival Louisiana State (29). Tennessee captured the women’s title, edging out Texas A&M 42-37. Florida finished 12th in the women’s standings with 14 points.
“I thought our guys did an unbelievable job today,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “They came in and performed extremely well. With everything we’ve been through this year, they just kept getting better and better as the season went along.”
Both Florida programs finished in the top 12 nationally for the second consecutive year and the men’s second-place finish ties for the best NCAA indoor finish in Holloway’s tenure as head coach.
Kevkhishvili became just the fourth woman in NCAA history to win back-to-back indoor shot put titles and the first since Laura Gerraughty of North Carolina did so in 2003 and 2004. Saturday, she won with a toss of 58-6.5 that set a new Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium Record.
Kevkhishvili battled Arizona State’s Sarah Stevens the entire way, falling behind after the first round of the finals before rebounding with throws of 58-6 and 58-6.5 on her final two tosses to claim the championship in dramatic fashion.
“Mariam is just Mariam,” Holloway said. “She comes to compete and give her best at every meet.”
Taylor captured the first indoor NCAA men’s triple jump in school history Saturday with a school-record leap of 55-8.50. Taylor shattered his previous best of 52-10.25 achieved at the SEC Indoor Championships. He broke a more than 22-year-old school record in the event, besting Shawn Akridge’s record of 53-4 set during the 1987 season. He also set a new facility record in the event.
“We’ve known he had the talent,” Holloway said, “but he has really put in the commitment and the time to getting better, and he really trusts and believes in his coach (Brian O’Neal).”
In total, Florida athletes collected 14 All-America honors on the weekend.
The 4×400-meter relay team finished third in a time of 3:07.51. The relay squad consisted of Taylor, freshman William Wynne, senior R.J. Anderson and junior Calvin Smith.
Sophomore sprinter Terrell Wilks, who in Friday’s preliminaries set the school record in the 60-meter dash, finished third in Saturday’s final in a time of 6.61. In addition to running on the Gators’ third-place 4x400m relay team, Smith earned All-America honors in the men’s 400-meter dash, placing sixth in a time of 46.59.
Senior hurdler Dennis Martin finished seventh in the men’s 60-meter hurdles in a time of 7.78, while senior middle-distance runner Carlos Phillips was seventh in the finals of the men’s 800-meter run in a time of 1:50.34.
Junior distance runner Charlotte Browning, competing in her first NCAA Championship meet, was eighth in the women’s mile in a time of 4:40.25.
Freshman Gray Horn was in sixth place in the heptathlon after five events, tying the school record for an opening-day score. But he failed to clear a height on the pole vault and finished in 14th place with a score of 4,769.
The Gators begin their 2009 outdoor season this Saturday at the UCF Black and Gold Challenge in Orlando.