PHILADELPHIA – The Florida track and field team had another big day at the 115th Penn Relays Carnival Friday at the University of Pennsylvania’s renowned Franklin Field. The Gators captured the Men’s Shuttle Hurdles Championship of America for the second straight year, one of their three victories on Friday, and had 10 NCAA regional-qualifying standards for the second straight day. The final day of competition is Saturday.
The Florida quartet of Kallinka Pitt (Largo), Dennis Martin (Anderson, S.C.), William Wynne (Marietta, Ga.) and Jarius Cooper (Palm Coast) won the Shuttle Hurdle event in a school-record time of 54.30 seconds. That was almost two seconds better than last year’s winning time of 56.24 seconds.
Wynne, a freshman hurdler, captured the men’s 400-meter hurdles in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 50.02 seconds. Sprinters Terrell Wilks (New Haven, Conn.) and Jeremy Hall (Jacksonville) each were timed at 10.39 seconds (an NCAA regional-qualifying time) in the preliminaries of the men’s 100-meter dash. Wilks won the event.
“Overall, I am very pleased with our team’s performance,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said Friday. “It was a great day – we had a couple of bumps in the road but, overall, it was a wonderful ride. William Wynne did a great job of winning the 400 hurdles at 9 a.m. today and I am very pleased with the shuttle hurdle relay winning its second Championship of America title. To this point, it is probably one of the best Penn Relays we have ever had and we want to build on that.”
Junior Shara Proctor (The Valley, Anguilla) finished fifth overall in the women’s triple jump championship with an NCAA regional-qualifying leap of 42 feet, 1¼ inches, tying her season best.
The men’s 4×200-meter relay team of R.J. Anderson, Wilks, Hall and Smith finished fifth overall in the preliminaries in a time of 1:23.54 and run in the Championship of America final Saturday.
Martin had a personal best (and an NCAA regional-qualifying time) in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.77 seconds to finish fifth overall. Cooper was timed at 14.15 seconds, also a regional-qualifying time.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team of Hall, junior Calvin Smith (Lutz), Wilks and freshman Jeff Demps (Winter Garden) won its heat and was 12th overall in a time of 40.65 seconds (NCAA regional-qualifying time). The team participates in the college championships Saturday.
The women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Madison McNary (Clearwater), Alishea Usery (St. Louis), Danielle Williams (Jacksonville) and Ije Iheoma (Holland, Pa.) finished third in the event in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 45.66 seconds.
The men’s 4×400-meter relay of Preston Wilson, Smith, Wynne and R.J. Anderson was 13th in its prelim Friday in a time of 3:09.61, an NCAA regional-qualifying time.
On Friday, Proctor won the women’s long jump with an NCAA regional-qualifying mark of 20 feet, 4½ inches.
Sean Blaney (Kissimmee) was 12th in the men’s steeplechase final with an NCAA-regional-qualifying time of 9:04.64.
Junior Evelien Dekkers (Etten-Leur, The Netherlands) was third in the women’s javelin in an NCAA regional-qualifying mark of 162 feet, 7 inches.
Freshman Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia) finished second in the women’s 5,000-meter run with an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 16:13.61. Teammates Sara Petrick (16:42.53) and Laura Garrow of Port Orange (16:51.10) also had NCAA regional-qualifying times.
Justin Taylor (St. Augustine) was 13th in the men’s 5,000-meter run in an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 14:10.97.
Junior Julie Northrup (Vero Beach) had an NCAA regional-qualifying time of 10:32.68 and finished second in the women’s steeplechase.
Freshman Keely Medeiros (Luziana, Brazil) had second-place finishes and regional-qualifying marks in the women’s shot put (54 feet, 4½ inches) and discus (155 feet, 5 inches).