FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Florida’s Mariam Kevkhishvili now has an NCAA outdoor shot put championship to go with her indoor championship and along with Shara Proctor put the Gators women’s track team in first place Thursday night in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
A junior from Tbilisi, Georgia, captured the outdoor title with a toss of 58 feet, 4½ inches. Proctor, a junior from The Valley, Anguilla, finished sixth in the women’s long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 4¾ inches.
Those two efforts gave Florida women’s team 13 points, which was good for a one-point lead over Florida State through three events.
The two also earned All-America recognition along with sophomore men’s shot putter Kemal Mesic (Sarajevo, Bosnia) and decathlete Gray Horn. Mesic finished third in the shot put with a throw of 64 feet, 7 inches, a personal best. Horn finished 11th overall and seventh among Americans in the event with 7,490 points, a personal best by 101 points.
The Gators men’s team, one of the favorites for the title, had six points to share 10th place with Liberty and Kansas State after four events.
“I thought we had another great day today,” Florida coach Mike Holloway said. “You come in here and hope everything goes your way, but that’s not always how it works. We’ve got some good qualifiers and we had Mariam win a national title and had three more All-Americans. We’ve set ourselves up to do some very special things. We just have to line up and get the job done.”
Kevkhishvili became the first person since former Gator Kimberli Barrett in 2005 to win both the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in the same season. Kevkhishvili has won the last two indoor shot put titles. She finished unbeaten against collegians in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, winning the SEC indoor title, the NCAA indoor title, the SEC outdoor title, the NCAA East Regional title and finally the NCAA outdoor title.
“We’re happy about the win and happy that Mariam could win both indoors and outdoors this season,” Florida throws coach Steve Lemke said. “The distance wasn’t really what we were looking for, but this event is all about placing and earning points to help the team, and Mariam was able to do that today.”
The Florida men’s 4×400-meter relay, which entered the meet ranked fourth in the nation, finished third overall in its semifinal round with a time of 3:04.64 to advance to Saturday’s 2:45 p.m. ET final. R.J. Anderson ran the opening leg, followed by Calvin Smith, Lamarr Davis and anchor Christian Taylor.
Kallinka Pitt (13.93 seconds, 10th) and William Wynne (13.94, 11th) advanced to the Friday night semifinals in the 110-meter hurdles.
Sprinters Terrell Wilks and Jeremy Hall each made it to the semifinals of the 200 meters but only Hall advanced to the event final with his time of 20.67 seconds.
NCAA OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS/JOHN McDONNELL FIELD
FLORIDA’S THURSDAY RESULTS
MEN
Team scores (through 4 events): 1. Oregon 20; 2. Arkansas 14; 3. Arizona 11; 4. Arizona State and Florida State 10; 6. Nebraska and North Carolina 9; 8. Middle Tennessee State 8; 9. Texas A&M 7; 10. Florida, Liberty and Kansas State 6; 13. Manhattan, Tennessee and Notre Dame 5; 16. Minnesota, Louisiana State, Missouri and Iona 4; 20. Georgia Tech 3; 21. South Carolina and Auburn 2; 23. Stanford and Northeastern 1.
Decathlon: 11. Gray Horn, 7,490 points (7th in 110 hurdles, 14.74, 881 points; 16th in discus, 123-02, 615 points; 12th in pole vault, 14-09, 760 points; 19th in javelin, 152-02, 535 points; 8th in 1,500, 4:32.84, 726 points).
Shot put: 3. Kemal Mesic, 64-07; 12. Beau Burroughs, 57-07.
110 hurdles (prelims): 10. Kallinka Pitt, 13.93 (Q), 11. William Wynne, 13.94 (Q).
200 (prelims): 10. Terrell Wilks, 21.08 (Q), 15. Jeremy Hall, 21.36 (Q).
800 (semifinals): 10. Carlos Phillips, 1:47.48.
200 (semifinals): 8. Jeremy Hall, 20.67 (Q), 10. Terrell Wilks, 20.76,
4×400 relay (semifinals): 3. Florida (R.J. Anderson, Calvin Smith, Lamarr Davis, Christian Taylor) 3:04.64 (Q)
WOMEN
Team scores (through 3 events): 1. Florida 13; 2. Florida State 12; 3. Providence 10; 4. Brigham Young, San Diego State, Arizona State and Oregon 8; 8. Washington and Tennessee 6; 10. UCLA, Purdue and West Virginia 5; 13. Illinois, Baylor and Tulsa 4; 16. Arkansas and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo 3; 18. Cornell 2; 19. Texas-El Paso, New Mexico and Air Force 1.
Long jump: 6. Shara Proctor, 21-04.75.
Shot put: 1. Mariam Kevkhishvili, 58-04.50; 11. Keely Medeiros, 51-02.75;