Florida track and field begins qualifying for NCAA Outdoor Championships

The Florida Gators track and field teams will be in Greensboro, North Carolina over the next couple of days taking part in the NCAA Outdoor East Qualifiers for the NCAA Championships that will begin in early June. The three-day meet will be held at the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center on the campus of North Carolina A&T University.

The action begins for the Gators today at 1:00 p.m. ET with Marquis Dendy and the men's long jump. The action resumes for the Gators on both Friday and Saturday at 10:00 a.m. ET with the women's and men's hammer throws respectively. In total, the Gators have been awarded 48 qualifiers for this weekend with 26 of them being from the women's team.

Out of those 48 qualifiers for the Gators, seven of them have been awarded the top seed in the East Region. Once again though, the secret to the Gators' success at this meet and at the NCAA Championships in June will be field events, sprints and a hopeful surprise in the distance arena.

The Gators men will be looking to qualify enough people to defend their 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championship while the women's team will look to secure their best overall finish since 2010. If the rankings are to be believed, the No. 1 men and No. 5 women should be just fine.

You can follow all the action online and up-to-the-second courtesy of Flash Results, who are once again the official timekeeper of the NCAA Championships. On Flash Results' website, you can also find the performance lists (in PDF form). Championship central is located at NCAA.com.