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The Florida Gators track and field teams claimed four victories, six personal bests, a season best and a season record as they blew past the fields at the Husky Invite in Seattle and the Virginia Tech Elite meet in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Gators, ranked No. 2 (men's) and No. 7 (women's) will now make preparations for the SEC Indoor Championships that will be held by the University of Arkansas in two weeks.
Taylor Burke got things going in Virginia by breaking the Florida high jump record with her jump of 1.86 meters. The previous record was set in 1992 at the SEC Indoor Championships by Maria Galloni. In other action from Virginia, Omar Craddock and Ciarra Brewer each won their respective triple jump events with best distances of 16.38 meters and 13.17 meters respectively. Marquis Dendy finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 16.10 meters.
In the women's 200 meters, the women's team took places two-through-five as they dominated the field. Kyra Jefferson, Ebony Eutsey, Destinee Gause and Shayla Sanders all ran under 24.21 seconds and Jefferson, Eutsey and Gause all set personal bests in the race.
Dedric Dukes and Leonardo Seymore took home first and second place in the men's 200 meter sprint with times of 21.08 and 21.19 seconds respectively. Those two will be counted on to repeat that performance in Arkansas in two weeks at the SEC Indoor Championships.
The main highlight from day-two in Seattle, Washington was Cory McGee who set a personal best in the women's mile with a time of 4:32.10 seconds. Her time was good enough for second place overall.
As mentioned above, albeit briefly, the Gators track and field teams are off this weekend as they prepare for the SEC Indoor Championships that will take place February 22nd through the 24th in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The SEC Championships is widely expected to see either the Arkansas Razorbacks, Florida Gators or the Texas A&M Aggies hoist the championship trophy with the wildcard being the LSU (or Auburn) Tigers.
For my money, give me either the Razorbacks or the Gators, with a lean towards the Razorbacks as they've already beat the Gators heads-up this season.