The NCAA men’s outdoor track and field began Wednesday the 5th of June. UF sets just outside the top ten with 6 points, all from Malcolm Clemons 3rd place finish in the long jump. USC leads with 19 points, most from the LJ. Clemons had a season best jump of 26’5”, just 3/4” out of 2nd place Parvej Khan did not qualify in the 1500. He needed at least 5th place in his heat and finished 6th… just .03 of a second behind the 5th place runner. We got no points in the Hammer or Javelin as the form sheets predicted. We did qualify in both relays and 1. Wanya McCoy in the 100m 2. Jevaughn Powell and Reheem Hayles in the 400m 3. Wanya McCoy and Robert Gregory in the 200m. We still have a shot but will need some good fortune and season bests in the remaining events. The women’s competition starts today.
As an addendum UF also has possible points in both the TJ (Sean Bodie- Dixon) and DT (Kai Chang) on Friday.
If you start doing the math, it’s a really weird year. Based on the prelims and seeds for events without them, UF actually has the most expected points at around 43, but 43 likely wont win a title. So someone will jump up and have a big day to get to around 50. Just hope it’s us.
Track and Field is such a difficult sport to predict… a DQ here, a dropped baton, a pulled hamstring, or an exchange out the zone and it’s a completely different meet. Right now it does appear wide open.
The Khan thing was weird. He needed top 5 but was way back with 200 to go. He had a big kick but seemed to give out at the end and got nosed out. Idk if he waited too long to kick or just didn’t feel good. either way it’s a blow.
For tonight, Day 2, the men have a chance. A cursory look at the start list of tonight's events shows 9 possible scoring opportunities. That is several more than any other school in contention. UF with 6 points out of Day 1 is 13 points behind current leader USC. However, USC appears to have only 5 legitimate scoring chances. If we have strong finishes and don't drop the baton UF will be in it all the way to the end.
By 1 point over Auburn Just held on enough in the 4x400 and without their best 4 running. Also, just realized it's a 3 peat. Impressive to say the least.
I changed the title to reflect the win. Great job by Coach Holloway and the Gators. I thought Auburn might have us when the day began, but the team hung tough.
The men didn’t win a single event but we made the best of our scoring opportunities. Several DQ’s helped, but Mouse always seems to have a solid plan and his relay teams are almost always technically solid.
Distant Gator I don’t know if you had heard but Khan followed up his NCAA performance with a win in Portland. He went 3:36.21, and went into the lead around the last 200 meter mark… the coaches seem to be working on tactical adjustments.
I did not hear. I was on vacation but by coincidence watched his race again this AM. Still not sure what he was doing in the trials but we all make mistakes. I made many during my Gator career. Hopefully he comes back strong next year.
I’m interested in whether or not he will run additional meets this year in an attempt to qualify for the Summer Olympics. He is the Indian record holder in the 1500M, but the Olympic standard is 3:33.50 leaving him less than 3 seconds short of an automatic qualifying time. I don’t believe he has a high enough ranking (yet) to qualify that way.
