The Florida Gators track and field team backed up their dominate performance at the Alabama Invitational with another strong showing, this time at the 2012 Gator Invite. The Gators as a team, didn't enter as many events as possible and as a result were unable to flash their No. 1 ranking in back-to-back weeks.
Jeremy Postin, David Triassi and David Levin posted a 1-2-3 finish in the weight throw with distances of 21.31m, 20.06m and 16.77m respectively. In the long jump, Marquis Dendy brought home a first-place finish with a best distance 7.20m. That distance, came on the third attempt (out of five) in the finals. Dendy also finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 14.45m. That distance is well short of his 15.25m jump a week ago in Alabama.
Gray Horn continued his strong start to the season with a third-place finish in the pole vault with a final height of 4.76m. Other Gator finishers in the pole vault were, Kyle Mailoux (fifth-place) and Anthony Amodio (seventh-place).
In the shot put, Horn dominated yet again with a final distance of 16.40m, which was good enough for first-place. Hunter Joyer, in his first shot put action of the season, finished fifth with a distance of 14.67m. Not a bad start for Joyer considering this was the first meet of his collegiate career.
William Wynne finished sixth overall in the 55m hurdles with a time of 7.54 seconds. Wynne finished sixth last week in the 60m hurdles, so yeah, there might be a theme developing early. In the final action of the Gator Invite for the Gators, Michael Burris finished thirteenth in the 200m dash with a time of 22.91 seconds.
Next, the Gators travel to College Station, Texas for the 2012 Texas A&M Challenge. There the Gators should be at full force and look to get revenge on the Aggies for their victory over the Gators the last time the two teams met, at the NCAA Outdoor National Championship.