Gator’s Women’s Track Team has Strong Thursday, Real Chance to Win on Saturday

There is still a lot of work to be done, but the women representing the Gators track team couldn’t have asked for a better day on Thursday during prelims and are well positioned to finish the job on Saturday and leave Eugene, Oregon with a national title.

Long Jump Leads The Way

Coming into the meet, the first scoring opportunity for Florida was going to be in the long jump. Jasmine Moore entered the meet ranked 3rd and Claire Bryant was ranked 7th.

Both Moore and Bryant had their best jumps with their first attempt and it ended up being all they needed.

Moore leaped 6.72 meters (22 feet) to put herself in the lead after one round and no one would catch her after six rounds of jumping. Moore would win the national title by five inches and score 10 points for Florida.

Bryant also moved up compared to her seeding. Her leap of 6.51 meters (21 feet 4 inches) was good enough for 5th place and four more points to make it a total of 14 points in the event.

Another School Record

During the men’s meet on Wednesday, Champion Allison set a school record for Florida in the 400. Talitha Diggs decided she too wanted in on the fun and set her own school record in the women’s 400.

Diggs entered the meet ranked 9th in the country, but ran a blistering 50.08 to enter Saturday’s finals as the top seed.

Teammate Taylor Manson wound up missing an auto bid into finals by .03 and finished 13th overall.

Everyone Else Advances

Prelims for the 800 can be the most unpredictable, and all that matters is to advance. Imogen Barrett was third in her heat, but also was in the heat that went the fastest so she qualified easily as an at large seed in a time of 2:02.24.

Gabrielle Wilkinson was in a much slower heat, but took an automatic spot into finals by running 2:03.70.

In the 400 hurdles Anna Hall emerged as the top overall seed by running 54.48. She will be joined in the finals by Vanessa Watson who ran 56.75 to grab the last at large bid.

Gators track also got a boost from their 4 X 400. Ranked 8th coming into the event, Florida qualified for finals by coming in 5th.

Where Florida Stands

Keeping in mind that only one team since 2005 has scored at least 65 points and not gone on to win the meet, Florida is in a good position to hit that mark.

The 14 points gained in long jump were ahead of pre-meet projections.

If everyone from prelims finishes in the exact same position in the finals, that would add another 10 points in the 400 to get to 24, 6 points in the 800 would get Florida to 30, 10 more in the 400 hurdles has Gators track at 40 and a 5th place finish in the 4 x 400 bumps it to 44.

Anna Hall, the top seed in the heptathlon, has a chance to give the Gators 10 points in that event, moving them to 54.

If Florida can go 1-2 in the triple jump on Saturday, that would get Florida 18 more points for a final score of 72.

But, there is a lot of room in the 800 for Wilkinson to move up and gain points. Same goes for Watson in the 400 hurdles.

And the ultimate wild card this meet will be Parker Valby in the 5000 meter run. She enters the meet ranked 12th but had a great run at regionals and could easily factor into the scoring if she can duplicate that.

Gators will enter Saturday with a real shot. And ultimately that’s all they could ask for.

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