The Mouse That Roared! Gators Three-Peat In NCAA Men's Track

Florida’s women go into Saturday’s final session in first place with 26 points and a chance to give the Gators their second national championship of the weekend.

Hayes, McIvor and Prude ran three legs of the 4X400 relay that clinched UF's national championship (UAA Photo)

It came down to the final race of the night, the 4X400 relay. Doesn’t the NCAA Division I track and field championship seem to come down to that final race every single year? Well, it happened again Friday night in Eugene, Oregon. Trailing Auburn by five points, the Gators needed to finish no worse than third and ahead of Alabama and Southern Cal to bring home a third straight national championship.

What made this mad dash to the 14th NCAA title won by head coach Mike "Mouse" Holloway so incredibly special was the final race was run without Wanya McCoy and Robert Gregory, who had run in the 200 meters about 30 minutes earlier. Taking their places in the 4-man relay were freshman Rios Prude Jr. and senior Jenoah McIver.

The Gators got a strong opening leg from Reheem Hayes, who had finished seventh in the 400 earlier. He handed the baton to Jevaughn Powell, the third place finisher in the 400. Powell got a great start, held the lead around the track and gave Prude some room to stretch the lead. Texas A&M and Arkansas closed the gap on Prude, who handed off to McIver, who maintained the lead until the final turn. McIver was far ahead of Alabama and Southern Cal, however, as the Gators finished third with a XXXX.

The six points gave the Gators a 1-point edge over Auburn to win the NCAA championship for UF.

It could be said that the hero of the night was triple jumper Sean Bodie-Dixon. On his sixth and final attempt of the night he surpassed Nebraska’s Terrol Wilson by 2-3/4 inches to finish eighth, good enough for one point, which proved to be the winning margin.

Here is how it happened for the Gators, who had only six points after Wednesday night’s opening session thanks to a third place finish in the long jump by Malcolm Clemons.

The Gators got a fourth place finish in the 4X100 relay with a time of 38.34. McCoy earned a sixth place finish in the 100 with a 10.02 time. The Gators got eight points in the 400 meters as Powell finished third with a 44.54 and Hayes finished seventh with a 45.78. Gregory finished second in the 200 with a 20.08, but McCoy pulled up lame, which could have proven disastrous.

Kai Chang’s final throw in the discus of 198-10 was good for a fifth place finish and four points. Then came Bodie-Dixon’s final effort in the triple jump for the point that proved the difference.

This was Holloway’s seventh NCAA outdoor championship with the UF men. He has won five indoor titles with the men, plus one indoor and one outdoor title with the UF women. Florida’s women go into Saturday’s final session in first place with 26 points and a chance to give the Gators their second national championship of the weekend. The Gators won the NCAA men’s and women’s championships on the same weekend back in 2022.

With Parker Valby, who won the 10,000 meters title Thursday, expected to win the 5,000 Saturday and Grace Stark the favorite to win the 100 hurdles, the Gators could easily surpass 55 team points which should be good enough for a win.

Men’s top 25 final team scores: 1. FLORIDA 41; 2. Auburn 40; 3. Southern California 35; 4. Alabama 32; 5. Texas A&M 31; 6. Houston 30.5; 7. Arkansas 30; 8. Virginia 26; 9. Georgia 25; 10. (Tie) Kansas and Miami 22; 12. Texas 20; 13. (Tie) Nebraska and Texas Tech 19; 15. Washington 18.2; 16. LSU 17; 18. Harvard 17; 19. Iowa State 16; 20. Florida State 15; 21. (Tie) Kentucky, Ole Miss and Wisconsin 14; 24. (Tie) New Mexico and Northern Arizona (13)