Florida Track and Field: The Anatomy of a Championship. Two Ways To Get One Thing Done.
What makes a championship team is not a fluid formula. Particularly in track and field. Team titles are one by accumulating as many points in as many events as possible with a well-rounded complement of athletes in every event.
By LOREN MEADOWS
GatorBaitMedia.com
The Florida Men’s and Women’s Track Teams have spent the last few days celebrating their triumph in this year’s National Outdoor Track and Field Meet. With a week off before returning to Eugene, Ore., they are taking time to relax, recuperate and reflect.
Last weekend was a culmination of hard work, togetherness -- and in many ways, diversity -- which delivered the outdoor national championship for both the men’s and women’s programs.
For the Florida women this would be the first outdoor national title in program history and the third overall. They would also become the second Gator team to capture both the indoor and outdoor titles, matching the 2012 Gators Men’s team. The men’s team preceded the women by capturing the national title one night prior.
What makes a championship team is not a fluid formula. Particularly in track and field. Team titles are one by accumulating as many points in as many events as possible with a well-rounded complement of athletes in every event.
For the Florida men, that formula was not in play nor even necessary. The Gators adopted the approach of less is sometimes more in their quest for the national title.
Entering the final day, the Florida Gators had not scored a single point and sat at the bottom of the team standings. With only seven entries a team title seemed like a 50/50 proposition at best. However, the Gators showed up Friday evening in their “Championship White” jerseys and quickly made their way up the board.
After finishing a close second in the 4x100m relay, sophomore Joseph Fahnbulleh would start the individual scoring off by winning the 100 meters, outracing a star-studded field that included hometown favorite Micah Williams of Oregon. Fahnbulleh who said that Coach Mike Holloway always tells him, “If I’m even at 30 meters I’m leavin” used superior turnover to overcome the field with a personal best time of 10.00 seconds. Florida would also get points in the 100m Dash from Fort White, Florida native Dedrick Vanover to put the Gators in striking distance of the title.
The 400m dash would set the tone for the Gators to begin to push ahead of the pack.
Champion Allison, Florida’s anchor on the record-setting 4x400m relay team, would finish second, while relay mate Ryan Willie would finish fifth. The stoic-but-explosive Allison, who came to Florida to “compete with a good team,” actually admits that he did not know much about Coach Holloway when he transferred to Florida from Alabama but openly states “this has been the best move ever for me”.
Enter again Fahnbulleh, the defending national champion in the 200 meter dash. Fahnbulleh would double down on Holloway’s “if your even, you’re leavin” theory, blasting the 200 meters field in the last 60 meters to run a personal best 19.83 seconds. This would complete the sprint double for the sophomore who will represent Liberia at this year World Championships.
With outstanding performances by their limited entries, the Gators were able to dominate all but two of the marquee sprint races on the program. The Gators were expecting a push from the Texas Longhorns who had 11 entries for the meet, however the Longhorns could not withstand clutch performances by the Gators.
The last event would be a four-lap coronation of sorts as the Gators, with the team title in hand, led start to finish in the 4x400 meter relay with a meet and facility record time of 2:58.88.
The term “diversity” comes to mind when breaking down the national title run for the Gator women.
The women had multiple entries in the 800 meter run, 400 meter hurdles, long jump, and heptathlon. What they didn’t have was participants in the marquee races of the 100 meter dash and 100 meter hurdles. If healthy, those events would have been contested by Grace Stark, the National Champion in both the 60 meter dash and the 60 meter hurdles indoors. Unfortunately, Stark suffered an injury at the SEC Championships and was unable to compete.
Along with Starks injury, the Gators also did not come to Eugene with dominant relay teams. Undeterred the Gator women walked into Heyward Field with the swagger of a seasoned championship team.
It is said that depth wins the conference and star power wins the natty, in this case the Gators had both. Leading the charge was the national championship trio of Jasmine Moore, Anna Hall and Talitha Diggs.
Moore repeated her double championship from the indoor season by winning both the long jump and triple jump in Eugene.
Anna Hall who just may be the future of American multi-events, won the Heptathlon in dominating fashion nearly eclipsing the collegiate record. Hall, was possibly the most impressive athlete at the meet male or female as she attempted to complete what ESPN’s Jill Montgomery termed “the impossible double” by also competing in the 400 meter hurdles as well.
Many view the 400 meter hurdles and the two-day Heptathlon as two of women’s track and field’s most demanding races. While Hall would finish second in the hurdles, her 18 combined points were valuable to the pursuit of the team title for the Gators.
With the women in pursuit of their first outdoor title possibly the most interested was one of their own.
Sophomore Diggs, had planned to be here all along.
“When Coach Holloway recruited me, I told him I wanted to be great, and I wanted to win the team title,” she said. Lofty goals for 17-year-old, but Diggs did her part to make that dream a reality.
Diggs saved her last race of the collegiate season for her best dominating a field of athletes that featured four women who had eclipsed 51 seconds. Diggs executed the perfect race and became only the fifth women in collegiate history to eclipse the 50 second mark with a time of :49.99.
The rest of the Gators would also chip in scoring points in all but one individual event contested. To add to the scoring were performances by the charismatic team player Claire Bryant (5th, Long, Jump), SEC Champion Sterling Lester (5th, Heptathlon), Imogen Barrett (4th, 800m Run), Vanessa Watson (7th, 400m Hurdles), and the always steady Natricia Hooper (6th, Triple Jump).
Most impressive of the supporting cast may be the emergence of sophomore Parker Valby. The Tampa native spent her indoor season trimming more than three minutes off of her personal best time to become one of the nation’s best in the 5000 meter run.
With one event to go, Valby’s impressive runner-up finish in the 5000 would be the deciding points to guarantee the Gators the national title.
Diggs who was preparing for the 4x400 meter relay was very aware of the team standings throughout the meet. “I was constantly refreshing my phone and adding up the points” Diggs stated. “I knew Parker only needed to get 8th, for us to win, I couldn’t see her, but I kept hearing the announcer say Florida, Florida, so I knew we were in good shape”.
With Valby’s points in the barn, another four-lap coronation followed with the Gators having no need to score a point in the final relay.
The Gators could be poised for repeat of the first. Coach Holloway will likely find the formula to put his teams in the hunt when the Gators arrive in Austin next year. As in most cases, the Gators show up in white when the lights shine the brightest and always seem to deliver.
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