Florida men, women finish third at 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships

This recap was pushed back a day because of the Florida Gators' continued run in the men's SEC Basketball Tournament and Selection Sunday.

Despite their best efforts, both of the Florida Gators' track and field teams finished in third place over the weekend at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships in New Mexico over the weekend. The women's team finished 3.5 points behind winner Oregon and the men finished 27 points behind Oregon — which swept the team titles, something Florida was favored to do coming in.

The women's team had a chance to claim the title in the final event of the Championships, a winner-take-all 4x400m final. The Gators entered in a tie for second place, behind a Georgia team that didn't have an entrant and in a field that included fellow potential champions Oregon and Texas, but finished fourth in the event with a time of 3:32.06s, and had to settle for their third place finish.

The men's 4x400m final was somewhat anticlimactic: The Gators were mathematically unable to win the title, but they were disqualified in the event anyway.

Some of the top performers at the Championships on the women's side were Brittany Harrell, who broke her own school record in the pentathlon by scoring a combined 4,287 points in the events; Robin Reynolds, who finished eighth overall in the in the women's 400m finals with a time of 52.92s; and Kyra Jefferson, who placed second in the 200m dash with a time of 22.79s.

The women's distance medley finished fourth overall in the event and Cory McGee finished fourth in the women's mile with a time of 4:39.61s. In the second-to-last women's event, Shayla Sanders finished sixth in the 60m sprint finals with a time of 7.27s.

On the men's side of things, Eddie Lovett failed to capture another NCAA championship in the 60m hurdles with his second-place finish of 7.58s — he was clipped by hundreths of a second. Arman Hall finished third in the men's 400m sprint with a time of 45.52s and Ryan Schnulle finished fifth in the 800m with a time of 1:49.31s.

Antwan Wright was the other high finisher for the men as he finished fifth in the 60m sprint with a time of 6.63s.

Women's Top 5 team standings

• 1) Oregon, 44 points
• 2) Texas, 43.50 points
• 3) Florida, 40.50 points
• 3) Georgia, 40.50 points
• 5) Texas A&M, 35 points

Men's Top 5 team standings

• 1) Oregon, 62 points
• 2) Arkansas, 54 points
• 3) Florida, 35 points
• 4) Florida State, 28 points
• 5) Arizona, 24 points

The turnaround for the Gators will be quick, as the start of the outdoor season is this weekend. The Gators will be in Orlando for the UCF Invite on March 21 and 22 in what should be a true measure of the track and field program that the Gators have built.