Florida sophomore hurdler, jumper and sprinter Grant Holloway was voted United States Track and Field and Cross Country Association South Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year by the region’s coaches Monday.
Holloway is the fourth Gator in history to collect the regional award, which was first distributed in 2006. All four of Florida’s winners have come in the last six seasons, with Najee Glass earning it in 2015, Arman Hall in 2014, and Eddie Lovett in 2013.
Holloway, who broke Omar McLeod’s 60-meter hurdles collegiate record earlier this year, is the third hurdler to claim the honor, joining Lovett and Tennessee’s Aries Merritt (2006).
With his winning time of 7.42 seconds, which shaved three hundredths of a second off McLeod’s record, Holloway joined American record holder, 7-time world champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Allen Johnson as the only other man in indoor track and field history to break 7.45 seconds and long jump at least 8.00 meters. Though his best long jump mark this year is only 7.97 meters (26 feet, 1.75 inches), Holloway jumped 8.05 meters (26 feet, 4.75 inches) last season.
Holloway is coming off his second consecutive SEC Indoor Championships 60 hurdles title. He enters Friday’s NCAA Indoor Championships as the defending 60 hurdles champion, tied for fifth nationally in the long jump, and as a member of the second-fastest 4×400 relay team in collegiate history.
Baseball: Top-ranked Florida (12-1) plays at UCF (8-3) today at 6:30 p.m.
The UF pitching staff dominated last week in going 5-0, posting a 1.20 ERA and recording two shutouts. UF struck out 41 batters with just six walks over 45.0 innings last week and limited hitters to a .194 average
At the plate, Florida hit .329 and averaged 7.0 runs per game in its five wins last week.
Softball: For the second consecutive week, junior Kelly Barnhill earned SEC Pitcher of the Week after a pair of wins at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif.
This is Barnhill’s (9-0) seventh career SEC Pitcher of the Week award, the most garnered by a Gator in program history. Stacey Nelson earned the award six times.
The Marietta, Ga. native continued to be dominant, as she pitched 10.0 scoreless innings, while allowing only a single hit to help the Gators. Barnhill is now riding a 16.2 scoreless inning streak into SEC Opening Weekend against Kentucky on Friday-Sunday.
Lacrosse: After an impressive wire-to-wire 17-10 win over then-No. 3 North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a dominant home win against Jacksonville, Florida moved up to No. 3 in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll.
The Gators (3-1) wrap up a stretch of four games in 11 days with a 2 p.m. match Wednesday at No. 8 Syracuse (3-1).
Men’s golf: At Las Vegas, through 18 holes of play at the Southern Highlands Collegiate, the Gators lead the field by three strokes.
Led by a 3-under par 69 from freshman John Axelsen, Florida carded a 282 (-6) to open up play. The Denmark native poured in five birdies on day one while finishing bogey free over the final 11 holes of play.
Axelsen enters day two tied for fourth on the individual leaderboard.
One stroke back of him is freshman Chris Nido and junior Gordon Neale. Nido was as low as 6-under par after going bogey-free the first 13 holes but finished 2-under and is tied for eighth along with Neale.
The Gators took advantage of the par fives in the opening round as they finished 9-under, which was four strokes better than the next closest team.
Diving: At Knoxville, Tenn., the men’s and women’s divers wrapped up the first day of NCAA Zone competition, with one Gator earning a spot in the finals session.
Sophomore Brooke Madden just missed qualifying for NCAA Championships in the women’s 1-meter final, finishing ninth overall with a score of 549.95. The top seven spots from the event qualified for the Championship meet next week.
Madden earned her spot in the women’s 1-meter final after posting a score of 272.50 to finish 12th overall in the preliminary round. Freshman Emma Whitner also competed for the Gators in the 1-meter prelim, finishing 29th.
On the men’s side, sophomore Alex Farrow finished 24th with a score of 291.45, while redshirt senior Dalton Goss notched a mark of 267.25 to finish 34th.
Congratulations Grant!! Keep up the great work!!!