Florida Gators
SEC Championships
Lowe's 10K Win Propels UF Women To Day-Two Lead At SEC Championships
Saturday, May 17, 2008 | Track and Field
Freshman Rebecca Lowe (Vancluse, Australia) became the first University of Florida woman in 23 years to win a Southeastern Conference title in the 10,000m on Friday, helping the No. 13 Gators grab the lead at the SEC Outdoor Championships after three scored events with a total of 26 points. The third-ranked UF men are currently tied for fifth place with 12 points, all of which came via the decathlon.
“The women had a phenomenal day, and the men did well for the way the schedule played out for them today,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said. “Scoring big points in the 10K and the hammer, and qualifying people for finals in both the 200m and the 800m, I'd say the women are batting 1.000 right now. We've talked a lot about being a complete team, and we saw a lot of good performances across the board from both the men and the women today.”
Running in the final women's event of the evening, Lowe cruised to an NCAA provisional time of 34:13.07 to win the 10K by more than 13 seconds and become the Gators' first women's champion in the event since Shelly Steely earned the crown in 1985. The performance, which ranks second in school history behind SEC record holder Beth Farmer, is the program's fourth overall title in the event, as Farmer won a pair in addition to Steely's victory. Florida tallied 16 points in the event, as junior Jacy Kruzel (Cooper City, Fla.) took sixth with a time of 35:20.26 to earn three points, junior Sara Petrick (Apollo Beach, Fla.) garnered two points with a seventh-place finish in a career-best 35:33.72 and freshman Ali Crabb (St. Petersburg, Fla.) grabbed the final point with an eighth-place time of 35:37.76.
Senior Shawneise Williams (Archer, Fla.) was the top finisher of a pair of Gator point-scorers in the women's hammer throw, posting a career-best mark of 59.21m/194-3 to take third and earn six points. The effort moved Williams from 10th place to eighth on UF's all-time chart, and marked her best finish in the event at the SEC Championships. Classmate Chinelo Ubaka (Tallahassee, Fla.) also registered a career-best on Friday with a fifth-place toss of 58.55m/192-1, which is good for 10th in program history and matches her best finish at the conference meet.
The Florida women also had a successful day on the track, as three athletes qualified for finals in their respective events. The 200m saw seniors Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.) and Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.) qualify for Sunday's championship race in the first and eighth places, respectively. Knight clocked in at 23.22 against a -1.2 headwind to claim the day's top qualifying time, while Ealey ran into a -1.0 breeze but still managed to qualify with a mark of 23.86. Senior Lorain McKenzie (Clarendon, Jamaica) ran her way into Sunday's 800m final with a season-best and NCAA regional-qualifying time of 2:07.14, the fifth-best of the day.
Sophomore Steffan Hommel (Albershausen, Germany) and senior Kurt Lee (Spring Hill, Fla.) got the UF men on the board with second and fifth-place finishes, respectively, in the decathlon, with the former punching his ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Hommel concluded the 10-event schedule with an NCAA automatic-qualifying score of 7,540 points, good for second at the meet and third in school history. He highlighted the day with a runner-up finish in the discus throw (45.62m/149-8) and a career-best toss of 52.13m/171-0 in the javelin. Lee used a first-place effort of 4.85m/15-11 in the pole vault, a full eight inches better than the rest of the field, to move from 10th place to fifth with a final total of 6,689 points.
“This was a really good meet for both of these guys,” Florida multi-events coach Rana Reider said. “Steffan was able to get an NCAA auto mark out of the way and Kurt had the second-best score of his life, so I'm happy with the way things played out. From a team standpoint, they both worked hard to score points, and it was exciting to watch Steffan get fired up today. He left a lot of points out on the track, and I think he has an opportunity to do some big things at nationals this year.”
Junior Jeremy Criscione (Interlachen, Fla.) narrowly missed scoring in the men's 10,000m, finishing 10th with a career-best time of 30:11.69. The run was more than 27 seconds better than his previous PR, and fell just five seconds shy of earning him a spot on UF's all-time top 10 list.
“Jeremy Criscione ran the race of his life tonight in the 10,000m,” Holloway said. “It was unfortunate for him and the team that it came in perhaps the best SEC 10K race ever. Three guys were under league-record time and some of the nation's top times this year came out of that race, but he ran tremendously and competed as hard as we could ask of him. I'm certainly very happy for him after that performance.”
The Gators also secured a pair of spots in Sunday's men's 800m final, as senior Eric Alberter (Belleville, Ill.) finished second in his heat and fourth overall (1:49.02), while sophomore Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) was second in his heat and fifth in the field (1:49.78) on Friday.
“Tomorrow isn't about making a huge move in the standings on either side,” Holloway said. “It's about building momentum and getting ourselves in a good position to finish strong. This meet is about having four good days in a row, and we've talked a lot about building and sustaining momentum this year, which is what we need to do from here on out.”
The action will start tomorrow from Hutsell-Rosen Track at 1:30 p.m. ET with the women's javelin, while the running events will commence at 7 p.m. ET with the prelims of the women's 1,500m. Live results will be available via www.GatorZone.com.
Florida's 2008 SEC Champions
Rebecca Lowe – Women's 10,000m (34:13.07)
Florida Athletes Advancing to Finals (Five Athletes in Three Events)
Eric Alberter – Men's 800m
Lakecia Ealey – Women's 200m
Natalie Knight – Women's 200m
Lorain McKenzie – Women's 800m
Carlos Phillips – Men's 800m
- UF -
