SEC Outdoors Track and Field Championships: Gators earn medals

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Florida's track and field program added three medals and secured eight finals berths Friday ahead of the final day of competition at the SEC Outdoors Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas.

Claire Bryant, who ranks tied for third in school history and arrived in Texas as the No. 6-ranked long jumper in the nation, took a leap of 6.71 meters (22 feet, 0.25 inches) [+2.2] to earn a silver medal. 

Meanwhile Clayton Brown, who entered the championships meet ranked eighth nationally, cleared a height of 2.24 meters (7 feet, 4.25 inches) to finish third in the high jump and collect bronze.

Out on the field, redshirt senior Connor Bandel finished third in the shot put, capturing his first outdoors and third combined SEC medal with a mark 19.61 meters (64 feet, 4 inches). 

On the women’s side, the Gators collected six team points with a seventh-place finish by Sterling Lester in the heptathlon and Thea Jensen’s fifth-place finish in the shot put.

Lester amassed 5,499 points, the fourth most in the school history, while Jensen logged a personal-record throw of 16.42 meter (53 feet, 10.50 inches) that ranks ninth in UF history.

Meanwhile, Trevor Foley added six points for the men with time of 9:00.98 in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and Caleb Foster finished fifth in the men’s long jump with a personal-best mark of 7.70 meters (25 feet, 3.25 inches) [+1.7] to contribute four points.

Florida’s men now sit in fifth place with 30 team points, while the women have 14 points and are in ninth place.

The Arkansas men lead the team standings with 58 total points, followed by Alabama (51), Tennessee (41), LSU (38), Florida (30), Mississippi State (23), Georgia (19), Auburn (16), South Carolina (12), Ole Miss (10), Texas A&M (10) and Kentucky (4).

Arkansas leads the women's standings with 51 points, followed by Alabama (47), Auburn (36), Georgia (35), Ole Miss (30), LSU (26), Texas A&M (25), Tennessee (19), Florida (14), Missouri (12), Kentucky (9), Mississippi State (6) and South Carolina (2).

The final day of competition today will be televised on the SEC Network beginning at 6 p.m. ET. More results from the meet can be found here.