Gators sweep NCAA track & field championships in span of 24 hours
Florida’s dominance in track and field under coach Mike Holloway took another step — a historic one for the Gators — the past couple of days.
Holloway’s program swept the men’s and women’s NCAA championships during the span of 24 hours to become the first school since Oregon in 2015 to win the both titles.
The women’s team beat Texas 74-64 Saturday evening in Eugene, Oregon, to capture the program’s first outdoor title a day after the Gators men staged a furious final-day comeback to beat Tennessee 54-38 for their fifth national outdoor title.
Florida’s women also won the 2022 indoor national title in March to match the 2012 men’s team sweeping the two meets.
With 12 national team titles now to its credit, Holloway’s program is in a class of its own during the Gators’ impressive run as an all-around sports program.
Jasmine Moore won the long jump Thursday and the triple jump Saturday to sweep the events, earning 20 points. She has won eight titles during either the long jump or triple jump during eight meets this season, the first woman in NCAA history to complete the feat in the same season.
Fellow sophomore Anna Hall won the heptathlon and was runner-up in the 400 intermediate hurdles to deliver 18 points. Meanwhile, sophomore Talitha Diggs won the 400 and freshman Parker Valby finished runner-up in the 5,000.
The men’s team saved the best for last to earn another national championship.
It had been awhile.
Florida’s fifth national outdoor title — and first since 2017 — might have been its most unexpected and dramatic to date.
Sprinter Joseph Fahnbulleh led the charge with 22 points as the Gators compiled all 54 points on Friday in Eugene, Oregon, to blow past Texas (38), Tennessee (34), Florida State (33) and Georgia (32).
Fahnbulleh won the 100 and 200 meters and anchored the runner-up 4x100-meter relay during a historic performance. The sophomore became the first runner in Florida history to win two individual events during the same NCAA championship meet.
Fahnbulleh blew past the field in the 200 to finish with a school-record time of 19.83 — fourth all-time in NCAA history — and earn back-to-back titles during the event he ran for his native Liberia during the 2020 Olympics.
The performance effectively secured the team title for Florida to culminate Fahnbulleh’s scintillating night.
Fahnbulleh ignited the Gators’ rally as anchor of the 4x100-meter relay team featuring senior Dedrick Vanover, sophomore Tyler Davis and junior PJ Austin. Fahnbulleh nearly ran down the field during the group’s runner-up finish, earning Florida’s first 8 points of the evening at storied Hayward Field.
Less than an hour later, Fahnbulleh won the 100 with a blistering time of 10.0 and by a margin of .08 over Tennessee’s Favour Ashe. Vanover, a senior from Gainesville, finished fifth to earn 4 points.
The Gators capped their championship performance with continued dominance in the 4x400 relay.
Florida’s team of junior Jacory Patterson, sophomore Ryan Willie, sophomore Jacob Miley and junior Champion Allison broke the meet and facility record with a time of 2:58.88, just .35 shy of the collegiate record the quartet set earlier this year.
Earlier in the night, Allison finished second and Willie fifth in the individual 400 to compile a dozen points.
Florida scored 34 points across three events (4x100, 100m and 400m) during the span of 60 minutes to tie for the lead and set the stage for another championship performance under Holloway.
Since 2010 under Holloway, the Gators have won five outdoor and five indoor men’s national titles plus the women’s indoor crown from March as well as Saturday’s championship.
This title, though, was unexpected. The Gators entered the meet ranked sixth and featured the sixth most athletes entered in the field. Together, those athletes produced the fourth most top-10 marks.
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