Fight ‘Til The End

Despite a big night from Moore and Valby, the Gator women fall short.

The Florida Gator women’s track team arrived at the NCAA Outdoor track and field championship in Austin, Texas, poised to make a serious defense of the title that it won in dominant fashion a year ago. With 18 event entries, the women’s team entered the meet with the second most of any team in the country. The Gators also returned three athletes who finished first or second in their events last year and were looking to repeat those feats this year.

On the way to the national title in 2022 Jasmine Moore won both the long jump and triple jump, Talitha Diggs was first in the 400 meter dash, and Parker Valby returned as national runner-up in the 5000 meter Run. With a group that looked ready to go many had the Gators poised to win it all again.

Unfortunately the meet did not start the way the Gators would have liked. They failed to make the finals of the 4x100 meter relay despite running .5 seconds faster than the team ran in the eastern preliminaries two weeks ago. The Gator entries in the 1500 (Gabby Wilkinson), 100 meter dash (Kynnedy Flannel), and 800 meter run (Imogen Barrett) would also fall short of Saturday’s final putting the Gator women’s title hopes in jeopardy as the meet progressed.

In the 400 meter hurdles, the Gators would suffer another setback before the race ever started. Vanessa Watson, who finished seventh at the national championships in 2022 was disqualified for an infraction of not coming to the “set” position on command. Despite a protest from the Florida coaches the Gators would miss an opportunity for possible points in Saturday’s finals.

In the long jump the Gator would get ten points from the duo of Jasmine Moore and Claire Bryant who finished third and fifth, respectfully. This would be the first time that Jasmine Moore would be defeated in the long jump at the championship level since transferring to Florida from Georgia. For Moore, the defeat of Thursday night would be more than enough motivation to turn in a historical performance in the triple jump. On her second jump of the competition, Moore would take a monstrous leap into the history books with a collegiate record jump of 48’6 inches eclipsing the mark of 47’11 inches set by Georgia’s Keturah Orji in 2018. The win by Moore would give the Gators ten points and gave Moore a bit of revenge on Ackelia Smith of Texas who bested her in Thursday’s long jump competition. “Definitely couldn’t feel sorry for myself,” said Moore when talking of Thursday’s defeat. “Remaining calm and confident today is what helped.” "Very happy that it all came together.”

As the night progressed, the Gators would continue to get All-American performances in both the sprint and field events. Defending 400 meter champion Talitha Diggs would finish fifth in Saturday’s final while finishing seventh in the 200 meter dash. Diggs was a member of the World Championship 4x400 Relay team for the United States last August and it is possible an extended season affected here performance this year.

National Champions Parker Valby (left) and Jasmine Moore (right) UAA Photo

The second National Champion for the women would be Parker Valby in the 5000 Meters. Valby, who missed the indoor season with injury, began to reestablish herself with a win in this event at the SEC Championships in May and would proceed to obliterate the field by over 50 meters on Saturday. Valby has now finished first or second in every championship race including Cross Country since the spring of 2022.

In speaking of her resurgence, Valby stated: “This is probably the most unconfident I’ve been going into a race in my career, ever. I trusted my coach and I trusted that everything works out.” Valby would then confidently give John Anderson of ESPN an impromptu review of the best the city of Austin, Texas has to offer.

The win by Valby would allow the Gators to end the evening on a high note as the 4x400 meter relay team failed to make tonight’s final. An additional six points would come from freshman Alida Van Daalan in the discus giving the Gators 51 points and a Runner-Up finish to Texas who would win the title with 83 points. The performances of Moore and Valby, however, allow the Gators to look optimistically to 2024 and a return to prominence.