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Gators Primed for NCAA East Preliminary Round
The No. 1 Florida men
and No. 5 UF women have hit the ground running in Greensboro, preparing
for the upcoming NCAA East Preliminary Round, hosted by North Carolina
A&T State University. The three-day meet runs Thursday, May
23-Saturday, May 25 at Irwin Belk Track & Field Center at Aggie
Stadium.
48 individual qualifiers and 24 relay
teams from each region will compete at either the East or West
Preliminary Rounds, as the qualifiers are then whittled down to 24
individuals and 12 relays who will advance to the NCAA Outdoor
Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 5-8. Florida has been awarded 48
qualifiers (22 men, 26 women) for the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
The
Gator men are the defending NCAA Outdoor Champions and have placed in
the top three at the last four NCAA Outdoor Championships, while the
Florida women recorded a third-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor
Championships.
Seven Gators enter the
East Preliminary Round as the top seed in the region, including both of
Florida’s 4x400-meter relays. Individually, Ciarra Brewer (Union City,
Calif.) in the women’s triple jump, Omar Craddock (Killeen, Texas) in
the men’s triple jump, Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.) in the 1,500
meters, Ugonna Ndu (Newark, N.J.) in the 400-meter hurdles and Marija
Vucenovic (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) in the javelin all lead the East
in their respective events. Craddock also leads the NCAA in the men’s
triple jump and is the defending NCAA Outdoor Champion in the event.
Five
Gators qualified for multiple individual events, including Darshay
Davis (Mirimar, Fla.) in the women’s 100 and 200 meters, Marquis Dendy
(Middletown, Del.) in the men’s long and triple jumps, Lorraine Graham
(Springdale, Md.) in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump, Ndu in the
100-meter and 400-meter hurdles and Agata Strausa (Riga, Latvia) in the
1,500 and 5,000 meters.
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