Florida Gators track has great final weekend before SEC Indoor Championships

In their final weekend of competition before the start of the SEC Indoor Championships in two weeks, the Florida Gators track and fiend teams split into four groups across the country and they had tremendous success.

Things began on Friday with Mark Parrish breaking a twenty year-old Gators' record in the 5,000m run with a time of 13:43.15s. Even though that time was good enough for fifth-place overall in Seattle, that time will be plenty good to challenge Arkansas during the SEC and later the NCAA Championships.

Also on Friday, Hugh Graham Jr. tied his personal best in Iowa at the Iowa State Classic with a 6.64s in the 60m dash. His time was the top qualifying for the finals that were to be held on Saturday. Which went according to plan with Graham Jr. winning the event with a time of 6.66s. Graham Jr. would also go on to win the men's 400m sprint with a time of 46.60s in what will set up an incredible event at the SEC Indoor Championships in two weeks.

At the Texas A&M Invite on Saturday the Gators came away with seven total victories and four runner-up positions in various events. Jayla Bostic, Ciarra Brewer, Skylar Ross-Ransom and Robin Reynolds all took home second-place in the women's weight throw, triple jump, 60m hurdles and 400m dash respectively.

Eddie Lovett took home the victory in the men's 60m hurdles with a 7.69s time in the final, while fellow Gators Yanick Hart and Moriel Pitt came in third and forth in the same event. As for the non-hurdle 60m, the Gators men's and women's swept victories with Shayla Sanders and Antwan Wright winning their events with times of 7.32s and 6.63s respectively.

In the men's 200m dash, Arman Hall continued his Bowerman pace with another victory in the event, this time with a time of 20.68s. Marquis Dendy also continued his fantastic year in the men's triple jump with a victorious distance of 7.50m.

Taylor Burke took home the victory in the women's high jump with a height of 1.82m and Stipe Zunic won the men's shot put on Saturday with best distance of 18.98m.

At the world famous Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games inside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, Cory McGee finished a very respectable twelfth with a time of 4:37.32s.

The Gators are off this weekend as they begin practice preparations for the SEC Indoor Championships that are set to begin on February 27th in College Station, Texas. The No. 2 men's team and No. 4 women's team both have great shots at winning the SEC Championship and they'll need to be on the top of their games to do so.