PHILADELPHIA – Florida freshman jumper Omar Craddock and the men’s 4×400-meter relay each picked up a victory Saturday to lead the Gators on the final day of the 116th Penn Relays Carnival at historic Franklin Field before a record crowd of 54,310 track and field fans.
Craddock, who enrolled in January, turned in a personal-best leap and the third-best men’s triple jump in school history, winning the event with a mark of 53 feet, 3½ inches on his final jump. Craddock defeated the nation’s top triple jumper, Alphonso Jordan of Georgia Tech, and No. 2 Zuheir Sharif of Texas A&M.
The men’s 4x400m relay team recovered from a dropped baton in Friday’s preliminaries to claim the college final Saturday. Florida recorded a time of 3:05.40 with its team of R.J. Anderson, Tony McQuay, Christian Taylor and Calvin Smith.
During the three days of competition, Florida won five events and set numerous personal-best times and marks.
“The Penn Relays is a unique experience and every college student-athlete should have the opportunity to experience it during their careers,” Florida coach Mike Holloway said. “It was an up-and-down meet for us, but that’s going to happen. Our field-event athletes definitely showed this weekend just what a vital part of our success that they are. We had some bad luck in the relays, but that’s just part of the sport. We’re going to continue doing what the Gators do. We’re going to get back to Gainesville and get to work on Monday to continue to improve and get better.”
The Florida men’s 4 x 200-meter relay team of McQuay, Jeremy Hall, Terrell Wilks and Smith was second in its Championship of America final, clocking 1:21.53. The women’s 4 x 400-meter relay team of Lanie Whittaker, Ugonna Ndu, Alishea Usery and Ije Iheoma was third in 3:38.70. Redshirt freshman Jeremy Postin, the school-record holder in the men’s hammer throw, was seventh in Saturday’s event with a toss of 194 feet, 7 inches.