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The Florida Gators men’s and women’s are set to host the annual Pepsi Florida Relays.
The relays will begin Thursday at 2 pm and run through Saturday. Over 100 colleges will enter athletes in the event and over 200 high schools will attend the meet.
Success for both squads
The Gators men’s track team is entering the meet having won the 2019 NCAA indoor track and field championship. Florida has won a men’s track championship each of the past four years, winning outdoor track titles in 2016 and 2017 and the indoor title in 2018 and 2019. The men’s team is ranked fourth in the preseason polls.
The women’s team has been just as impressive. The Gators finished sixth at the NCAA indoor track meet earlier in the season and has finished in the top-five in each of the past two outdoor championship’s. The women’s team enters the season ranked 10th in the nation.
Individually, The Gators boast elite talent. Junior Grant Holloway is coming off one of the most impressive outings in collegiate history at the NCAA indoor championships. He claimed both the 60-meter high hurdles and the 60-meter dash championships, becoming only the third person ever to do so. Holloway is also the reigning 110-meter high hurdles national champion, having the claimed the outdoor title in both 2017 and 2018.
On the women’s side, all-American heptathlete Amanda Froeyness will return for her sophomore season after impressive campaigns a season ago. The Norwegian finished fifth in the 2018 outdoor championships in the heptathlon, the third highest finish in school history.
Loaded field
The 2019 relays will welcome an impressive field this year. Eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams entering the meet are ranked. Alabama boast the highest ranked men’s team, entering the meet ranked third in that nation. Meanwhile, the Florida State women’s team ranks sixth in the country.
Florida will begin the meet on Thursday with Cameron Mahorn running in the 200 meter dash. Claudia Francis will follow that up by running in the open 400.
Holloway won’t compete until Friday when he starts the day running in the 110-meter high hurdles. The meet will rap up Saturday with the relay teams competing.
