Florida's Jeremy Hall First Frosh To Win SEC 60 In Decades
By University of Florida Sports Information Dept.
Posted Monday, 26 February, 2007
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Freshman Jeremy Hall (Jacksonville, Fla.) became the first freshman in more than 30 years to win the 60m title as the No. 19 University of Florida men's track and field team finished third, while junior Lorain McKenzie (Clarendon, Jamaica) took third in the 800m to lead the women's team to a sixth-place finish at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships on Sunday at Nutter Field House.
Arkansas claimed the SEC title with 126 points with Tennessee taking second (115.5) and the Gators third with 93.5. The top-three finish was the ninth in the last 11 years and the 26th in school history. On the women's side, Tennessee won the title with 120 points with Georgia second (103), LSU third (101) and the Gators sixth with 42 points - just 10 out of fifth.
Hall clocked the third-best time in UF history to win the 60m (6.64) to lead the men, while junior Eric Alberter (Benton, Ill.) was the runner-up in the 800m, freshman Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.) was second in the 200m and third in the 400m, freshman Mike Morrison (Chesapeake, Va.) took fourth in the pole vault, sophomore Kallinka Pitt (Largo, Fla.) was fifth in the 60m hurdles and sophomore Willie Perry (Lenoir, N.C.) came in fifth in the 200m.
For the women, McKenzie took third in the 800m, while the Gator distance medley relay of junior Kristen Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.), senior Nadine Palmer (Manchester, Jamaica), McKenzie and junior Lindsay Sundell (Fort Solonga, N.Y.) also came in third place. Freshman Shara Proctor (The Valley, Anguilla) also finished among the top five as she was fourth in the triple jump.
For the men, several other Gators scored points during the day - sophomore Dennis Martin (Anderson, S.C.) was seventh in the 60m hurdles, junior Blake Taylor (Lansdale, Pa.) was eighth in the triple jump and junior Kurt Lee (Spring Hall, Fla.) tied for eighth in the pole vault. In addition, the distance medley relay of junior Ryder Leary (Yulee, Fla.), sophomore Afolabi Aromire (Springdale, Md.), freshman Ethan Philpot (Titusville, Fla.) and sophomore Enoch Nadler (Keystone Heights, Fla.) took fourth, while the 4x400m of junior Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.), Alberter, Smith and sophomore Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) came in fifth.
In addition, senior Mike Morrison (Willingboro, N.J.) finished third in the standings for the SEC Commissioner's Trophy, which is awarded to the athlete who scores the most points. Morrison ended the meet with 18 points after winning the long jump and taking second in the high jump.
"Overall, we had a great meet," Florida men's head coach Mike Holloway said. "That said, we can't be satisfied with being third in this conference. I know that's nothing to be ashamed of, but as a team and as a staff, we need to begin evaluating how to get better starting tomorrow. I do love the way that most of the team competed, but we have to get everybody on the same page."
Other point scorers for the women included the 4x400m relay of juniors Abigail David (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago), Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.), Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.) and Zan Joseph (Boynton Beach, Fla.), who took sixth, senior Nadine Palmer (Manchester, Jamaica) in the 200m (seventh), sophomore Jenna Utecht (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) in the high jump (tie for seventh) and senior Candace Cabey (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in the triple jump (eighth).
"We have a young team with just two seniors who came to the SEC Championships this year, and they were able to improve upon lasts year's finish which is good to see," women's associate head coach Steve Lemke said. "There were a couple of bad breaks in the meet, but the team did a nice job of bouncing back to take sixth place."
On the men's side, Hall won the 60m by 0.005 of one second over LSU's Richard Thompson with a time of 6.6340 as he became the first freshman in more than 30 years to win the SEC title in the event (including the 60-yard dash). Rounded up to 6.64, Hall's mark ranks third in school history and was the sixth-best time in the country this year. He became the first Gator since Marcel Carter in 1992 to win the 55m/60m dash. His time was just 0.02 away from Ahmad Jasmine and John Capel's UF record of 6.62.
"I just went out and competed as best I could," Hall said. "I had to go out there and be myself and, as a freshman, it feels great. I just wanted to do as well as I could to help my team out and try and win the SEC title."
Smith, who scored 16 points by himself at the meet, clocked a career-best time of 21.01 to take second in the 200m - his fourth race in a 24-hour span. The time was an NCAA provisional mark and the sixth-best time in the nation this season. Perry was second in his heat and fifth overall with a time of 21.25 to give UF four more points in the event.
Smith won his heat of the 400m despite getting caught behind the pack at the midway point of the race before he regrouped and crossed the finish line in 46.47, which was third overall. It was Smith's second NCAA mark in the event during the weekend after he ran an automatic time of 46.05 in Saturday's prelims.
Alberter led most of the 800m before taking second with a career-best 1:49.58 - the seventh-fastest time in school history. Alberter was in front for all but the final 200m before LSU's Jamaal James overtook him and won in 1:49.08. Alberter's mark was an NCAA provisional time and tied for the 15th-best mark in the country in 2007. It also moved him past current UF coach Jeff Pigg (1:49.82) on the all-time school list. Phillips finished seventh in the race with a time of 1:50.66 to give the Gators two more points.
Florida picked up 4.5 points in the pole vault as Morrison scored in his second event of the meet, while Lee tied for eighth. After taking third in the heptathlon on Friday, Morrison cleared 5.10m/16-8.75 to finish fourth and score four points. Lee surpassed 4.80m/15-9 to tie for eighth.
For the first time in 2007, Florida competed in the distance medley relay with Leary, Aromire, Philpot and Nadler turning in a time of 9:55.03 to take fourth. Not long after the DMR, Florida's 4x400m team of Middleton, Alberter, Smith and Phillips clocked an NCAA provisional time of 3:08.61 to take fifth. The mark was the ninth-fastest in the nation this season.
Pitt smashed his previous PR (7.99) to take fifth in the 60m hurdles with the sixth-fastest time in school history (7.84). The mark provisionally qualified Pitt for the NCAA Indoor Championships - the first provisional of his career. Martin also crossed the finish line with a career-best time of 7.96 to finish seventh and give the Gators five points in the event.
Taylor put the first points on the scoreboard of the day for the Gators in taking eighth in the triple jump. On his third attempt, Taylor soared to a mark of 14.77m/48-5.50m a personal best by 4.25 inches.
For the women, McKenzie was the leading individual scorer for the Gators on Sunday as she ran the 800m in 2:07.39 to finish third in the event and contribute six points for UF. McKenzie's time was the 10th-fastest indoor 800m time in school history, and it marks the first time in her Gator career that she has earned an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
Florida's distance medley relay also picked up sixth points with a third-place finish with a time of 11:28.62, which was just over four seconds from breaking onto UF's top-10 list in the event indoors. All four runners also competed in other events in the meet, but returned to run the DMR in a time good enough for the Gators' first NCAA provisional in the event this season.
"Lorain ran in a tough race to get her first provisional of the season," Lemke said. "She was seventh on the performance chart going into the final, so she really stepped it up and earned her third place finish. Then, Lorain and the other DMR competitors, Nadine, Kristen and Lindsay, did an excellent job running that relay after all of them had competed previously in the meet."
Entering the final event of the meet, the 4x400m relay, the Gators stood in eighth place needing to score to move up in the standings. The foursome finished in sixth place to earn the needed three points to move UF up to sixth place in the final team standings. The time of 3:43.27 was just over three seconds away from an NCAA provisional mark.
The Gators also picked up six points in the triple jump with Proctor and Cabey. Proctor finished the event fourth to earn five points with a leap of 12.99m/42-7.5. The mark ranks third best in the indoor triple jump in school history and set a personal best for Proctor by more than three inches. She also provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet in the triple jump for the second time this season. Cabey recorded a leap of 12.63m/41-5.25 to finish eighth and provided UF with a point.
Palmer also gave the Gators two points by recording a seventh-place finish in the 200m with an NCAA provisional time of 23.56 the second-fastest time of her career. Utecht finished in a three-way tie for seventh place in the high jump with a leap of 1.72m/5-7.75 to earn UF one point. Her leap was just 0.25 off her career best.
Both the men and women's teams will compete again in last chance meets next weekend.
Men's Team Scoring:
1. Arkansas, 126; 2. Tennessee, 115.5; 3. Florida, 93.5; 4. LSU, 79.5; 5. Georgia, 66; 6. Auburn, 59; 7. Kentucky, 40; 8. Alabama, 33; 9. Mississippi, 27; 10. South Carolina, 23.5.
Women's Team Scoring:
1. Tennessee, 120; 2. Georgia, 103; 3. LSU, 101; 4. Arkansas, 83; 5. South Carolina, 52; 6. Florida, 42; 7. Kentucky, 40; 8. Auburn, 39.5; 9. Mississippi, 36; 10. Alabama, 21.5; 11. Vanderbilt, 15; 12. Mississippi State, 10.
Florida Men's SEC Champions (3):
Jeremy Hall - 60m
Mike Morrison - Long Jump
Wes Stockbarger - Shot Put
Florida Women's SEC Champions (1):
Natalie Moser - Pole Vault
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