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<\/p>\nLayla Haynes\u2019 record-breaking 1500-meter run stole the spotlight as Florida track and field compiled an impressive slate of wins, personal bests and podium finishes in the East Coast Relays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sprints<\/p>\n
The Florida women had a dominant showing in the 200-meter event. Freshman Sydney Sutton ran a 22.55, placed first and added the fourth fastest 200-meter time in program history. Quincy Penn wasn\u2019t far behind, adding the fifth fastest time in UF outdoor history and placing third overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tyra Cox gave the Gators another top 10 performance in the 200-meter, with a personal best 23.23.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 200-meter, Wanya McCoy raced to a first-place finish with a 20.47, a time good for top 25 in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Justin Braun and Nicolas Spikes placed fifth and ninth, respectively, with Braun clocking in at 20.56 seconds, and Spikes adding a 20.72 second personal best time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 400-meter hurdles, Vance Nilsson churned out a podium performance for the Gators, placing third with a personal best 50.54 second time, a top 25 time in the nation this year. On the women\u2019s side, Marianna Wright\u2019s 58.87 second run was good for sixth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s 800-meter, Sydney Sutton added another podium finish. Her 52.14-second run earned the freshman third place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Distance<\/p>\n
The Gators had four top-10 finishes in the men\u2019s 1500-meter, including first and second place from Riley Novack and Miguel Pantojas.<\/p>\n
Jonah Kirspel finished fourth with a 3:50.60 effort in his first attempt at the 1500. Josh Ruiz gave the Gators another top-10 finish earning eighth place with a time of 3:52.58.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gator headliner was Layla Haynes, who ran a blazing 4:16.85 in the 1500-meter, good for a Barbados women\u2019s national record and a first place finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jumps<\/p>\n
Asia Phillips\u2019 6.23 meter leap in the women\u2019s long jump gave her a podium finish, and Pauline Bikembo wasn\u2019t far behind. She placed fourth with a 6.02 jump, while Temoso Masikane’s jump of 7.51-meters was good for fourth overall on the men\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s triple jump, Masikane upped the ante, leaping 15.68 meters for a first-place finish. Right behind him was Jaden Lippett, who jumped 15.56 meters to secure second. Masikane and Lippett were the only contenders who leapt over 15 meters in the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the women\u2019s side, Phillips gave the Gators another win with a 12.96-meter first place jump. Gabrielle Pierre\u2019s 12.71-meter jump gave Florida another podium finish at third.<\/p>\n
Throws<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s hammer throw, Basel Abosina added a second-place finish. His 67.50-meter toss put him just behind Decio Andrade, with the two being the only throwers to break the 60-meter mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jarno Van Daalen kept the momentum going for Gators throwers Friday, with a 19.53-meter mark in the men\u2019s shot put that placed him first in the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van Daalen was able to place second in the discus throw, with a 54.21-meter toss, placing him behind Miami\u2019s Desmond Coleman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s shot put, Alida Van Daalen and Gracelyn Leiseth kept things rolling for the Gators. Leiseth placed first in the competition as the junior threw a 17.56-meter winner. Van Daalen added to the Gators\u2019 success in her outdoor debut with a 17.16-meter toss for second. In the hammer throw, Imani Washington placed third with a 61.00-meter toss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van Daalen carried her momentum into the women\u2019s discus throw, where her 63.97-meter toss placed first overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Relays<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 4×100 relay of Payton Payne, Jade Brown, Gabrielle Matthews and Sydney Sutton was able to give the Gators a second-place finish, with a 43.12-second joint effort that put Florida just behind South Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s 4×100 relay group of Justin Braun, Garrett Fox, Trenton Howard and Wanya McCoy placed fourth, behind two groups from Auburn and one from Tennessee.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s 4×400, Florida\u2019s relay of Malia Campbell, Gabrielle Matthews, Layla Haynes and Marianna Wright placed second, running the event in 3:42.28 seconds collectively.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 4×400, Nicholas Spikes, Malique Smith-Band, Ja-Neil Harris and Daneil Wright were able to finish the weekend with a 3:05.33-second runner-up finish for the Gators. In both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s relays, Florida was beaten out by South Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gators will return to the track next for the SEC Outdoor Championships in Auburn, Alabama, May 14-16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow him on X @logandmcbride.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Logan McBride<\/p>\n
Logan McBride is a journalism junior and a Spring 2026 track and field reporter. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows or playing basketball at Southwest Rec. He is also a big football fan and will die for Dak Prescott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Layla Haynes\u2019 record-breaking 1500-meter run stole the spotlight as Florida track and field compiled an impressive slate of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-255978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}