PHILADELPHIA – Florida freshman Christian Taylor posted the second-best men’s triple jump in school history and the Gators added four more NCAA regional-qualifying marks Saturday on the final day of the 115th Penn Relays at historic Franklin Field.
In three days of competition, the Gators had 24 NCAA regional-qualifying marks, four victories and several personal bests.
“Across the board, this is the most successful Penn Relays we have had in my time at Florida,” head coach Mike Holloway said. “We did well in the javelin this morning and had second-place finishes in the 4×2(00-meter relay), Terrell (Wilks) in the 100 and Christian (Taylor) in the triple jump.”
Taylor, the reigning NCAA indoors triple jump champion, finished second in the triple jump with his effort of 53 feet, 5 inches.
Mario Ariet and Doug Nelson started the day with second- and third-place finishes in the javelin. Ariet had an NCAA regional-qualifying throw of 219 feet, 10 inches and Nelson had a regional-qualifying toss of 214 feet, 2 inches.
The Gators placed second in the men’s 4×200-meter relay finals, finishing in a time of 1:21.52. The squad consisted of R.J. Anderson, Wilks, Jeremy Hall and Calvin Smith. Wilks finished second in the 100-meter dash, clocking an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 10.39 seconds.
Florida travels to Tallahassee May 8-9 for the Seminole Twilight Invitational. Florida is the host of the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 14-17.