Category: Women’s Track & Field

Florida’s Parker Valby earns 2024 SEC Female Athlete of the Year award

Add another piece of impressive hardware to Parker Valby’s mantle.

The 2024 Roy F. Kramer SEC Female Athlete of the Year was announced on Tuesday with Florida Gators track and field star Parker Valby getting the nod after a season that featured five individual NCAA titles, four individual SEC titles and three collegiate records in distance events.

“The SEC is pleased to honor Parker and Jayden as this year’s Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

“It takes an exceptional level of discipline and commitment to achieve at highest level of competition, a level that has been reached by Parker and Jayden with the consistency necessary to be called the best of the best. These young people are great examples of what it means to be a student-athlete in the Southeastern Conference.”

“Incredibly proud of Parker and all that she has accomplished this year,” Gators Head Coach Mike Holloway said of Valby. “She has got to be considered the best female distance runner in NCAA history. I’m super proud of her, and of Coaches Will and Sam Palmer”

“This is a tremendous honor for Parker, our program, and the University of Florida,” Florida Associate Head Coach for Cross Country Will Palmer said. “The SEC is home to some of the very best young athletes in the world. It’s been a pleasure guiding her through the back half of her collegiate career and this award is a testament to both how far she’s come and how fantastic this year has been.”

The Gators standout is also on the U.S. Track and Field roster for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

SEC Female Athlete of the Year history

This is the second consecutive year in which a UF athlete has taken home the top individual honor in the Southeastern Conference — Valby takes the title one year after Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas earned the accolade. This is the 16th time in school history that a Gator has been awarded an SEC Athlete of the Year honor, which is the most of any school in the Southeastern Conference.

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Gators hurdler Grace Stark punches ticket to Paris Olympics

Another Gator punched their ticket to Paris on Sunday. Florida track star Grace Stark will run the women’s 100-meter hurdle for the United States at the Olympics.

Former Florida Gators track and field star Grace Stark smashed her personal best with a 12.31-second finish in the 100-meter hurdle event Sunday at the US Olympic Trials, punching her ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Masai Russell set a Trials record in first place with 12.25 seconds, and Alaysha Johnson beat out Stark for second by seven one-thousandths of a second. All three will represent the United States at the upcoming Olympic Games.

In the first round, Stark placed second in her heat and fifth overall with a 12.52-second finish. She set a temporary personal best with a 12.45-second run in the semifinals. Of course, she crushed that record by .14 seconds in the finals.

Former Gator Brandee Johnson also participated in the event, finishing 20th in the semifinal.

Grace Stark as a Florida Gator

Stark is one of the best hurdlers Florida has ever seen. She holds the program record for outdoor 100-meter hurdles (12.47 seconds at 2024 NCAA Championships), indoor 60-meter hurdles (7.78 seconds at 2022 NCAA Championships) and the indoor 60-meter sprint (7.10 at 2022 NCAA Championships).

The Lakeland High graduate earned All-American honors in every season with Florida.

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Florida’s Parker Valby earns silver in 10k at US Olympic Trials

Placing second in the 10k at the US Olympic Trials, should be enough to get former Florida distance runner Parker Valby on the Olympic Team.

After coming up short in the Olympic Trials 5k event, Florida Gators distance runner [autotag]Parker Valby[/autotag] placed second in the women’s 10,000-meter race, likely securing her a spot on the Olympic Team.

“I was a lot more calm (for this race),” Valby said. “I was super, super nervous for the 5k. If you took my heart rate before that race it was probably in the 500s. But before this race, I was just having fun with it and focusing on my teammates.”

Weini Kelati, who defected from Eritrea at 17, finished first with a time of 31:41.07. Karissa Schweizer placed third by fractions of a second behind Valby (31:31.56). All three should represent the United States at the Paris Olympics.

There is a complication, though.

Valby and Schweizer have not met the Olympic qualifying standard of 30:40. which means they’ll have to qualify through World Athletics rankings. They’ll have to wait until July 7 to find out, but there is a strong chance both make the team.

Runners World does a good job showing their math, but the gist of it is that Valby likely placed high enough to gain the points she needs to qualify.

Valby took the lead with five laps to go in the race. After setting the pace for most of the 5k event and then getting passed by, Valby decided to conserve her energy and wait to push things at the end. Her coach gave her the signal to push things to 71 seconds per lap, creating some separation between the three medalists and the rest of the field.

Schweizer made the first push to overtake Valby, followed by a somewhat decisive move from Kelati with 200 meters left to go.

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Jasmine Moore makes history qualifying for Olympic long jump

Jasmine Moore already punched her ticket to the Paris Olympics for the triple jump, and now she’s qualified for the long jump as well.

Jasmine Moore made history on Saturday when she qualified for the United States Olympic long jump team.

Moore finished second in the event with a 6.98-meter jump, which came on her third attempt. Moore led the event until the fifth round when eventual first-place winner Tara Davis-Woodhall went 7 meters with a 2.6-meter-per-second tailwind. Anything over 2.0 m/s is generally considered wind-assisted.

A similar outcome transpired in the opening round on Thursday. Davis-Woodhall bested Moore by one-hundredth of a meter (.01), but Moore only had 0.4 m/s of wind behind her compared to 1.9. Wind is part of the game, but the margins are so slim here that Moore could be the one who advances further in Paris.

As mentioned above, Moore’s qualification for the Olympic Team was a historical moment. No American woman has qualified for the long jump and triple jump in the same year before.

Monae’ Nichols is the third medalist of the day and will join Moore and Davis-Woodhall in Paris.

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Florida’s Parker Valby a finalist for The Bowerman Award

Parker Valby could become the first-ever Gators woman to earn earn The Bowerman Award.

The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced the three finalists for The Bowerman Award on Monday afternoon with Florida’s Parker Valby making the cut, joining Harvard’s Maia Ramsden and Oregon‘s Jaida Ross.

Valby is one of four women and eight Gator Track and Field athletes in the program’s history to be named a finalist for The Bowerman. Marquis Dendy (2015) and [autotag]Grant Holloway[/autotag] (2019) are the only two Gators to have won the award.

If Valby earns a third, she will be the first female in program history to do so as well.

THE BOWERMAN VOTING

Votes received from The Bowerman Voters for female candidates shall be tabulated as follows:

  1. Ballots: Each female Finalist shall receive 3 points for each “first choice” vote, 2 points for each “second choice” vote, and 1 point for each “third choice” vote.
  2. Fan Voting: The top female vote-getter in the Fan Voting for The Bowerman shall receive 3 points. The second-highest female vote-getter shall receive 2 points, and the third-highest female vote-getter shall receive 1 point.
  3. USTFCCCA Member Voting: The top female vote-getter in the USTFCCCA Member Voting for The Bowerman shall receive 3 points. The second-highest female vote-getter shall receive 2 points, and the female third-highest vote-getter shall receive 1 point.

DETERMINATION OF THE WINNER

The female Finalist with the highest point total after the tabulation of ballots, fan voting, and USTFCCCA member voting shall be declared the women’s winner of The Bowerman.

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Florida’s track and field star Anna Hall wins heptathlon at Olympic Trials

Another Gator is headed to Paris for the Olympics with Anna Hall’s heptathlon victory in Eugene, Oregon on Monday.

The latest Florida Gator to punch her ticket to the Paris Olympics is track and field star [autotag]Anna Hall[/autotag], who won the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Team Track and Field Trials on Monday.

Hall won the high jump (1.82 meters) and the 800-meter race (2:04.39), which was the competition’s final event. She placed third in the shot put (145.35 meters) and javelin throw (45.77 meters). A foul disqualified her best long jump, forcing a fifth-place finish (6.19 meters). She also finished fifth in the 200-meter race (23.90 seconds).

Her worst performance came in the opening event, the 100-meter hurdle. A 13.34-second finish set a new season best for Hall, but it was only good for seventh place. Fortunately, Hall ended the first day of events in the lead and closed things out on her terms, embracing her teammates as she soaked in the victory.

Overcoming injury

Hall’s last Olympic Trials (2021) ended with a broken foot, and then knee surgery came in January of this year. She also transferred to Florida from the University of Georgia after that to take her game further.

Mission accomplished, but it wasn’t easy by any means. Hall struggled mentally leading up to this race, but a strong support system helped keep her grounded.

“When I had surgery in January, it was so hard,” Hall said to NBC Sports after the win. “There were so many days that I left practice defeated. I thought about quitting and everyone around me was always just like, ‘No, we’re doing this. We can do it.’ And they did that until I started to believe too.”

That support system includes one of the greatest Olympians in this country’s history — two-time Olympic gold medal winner Jackie Joyner-Kersee. If Hall’s going to become the next American to finish on top of the podium, she has Joyner-Kersee’s behind her. In fact, she called Hall every two days leading up to the trials to check in on her.

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Gators track and field star finalist for Collegiate Women’s Sports Award

Florida’s Parker Valby is in the mix for the most prestigious award in women’s collegiate sports.

Florida’s track and field standout [autotag]Parker Valby[/autotag] was announced as one of the 12 finalists for the 2024 edition of the Collegiate Women’s Sports Award on Sunday.

The Gators star is just the fifth in the Honda Award’s 48-year history to sweep both cross country and track and field Honda Awards in a single season.

The finalists for the Honda Cup will be narrowed down to three on Monday, June 24, at 7 p.m. ET on CBS Sports. Valby will be unable to attend the event in New York City as she competes in the U.S. Olympic Trials 5,000-meter run final in Eugene, Oregon, the same evening.

Selection process

After the conclusion of each of the 12 recognized sports seasons, the Honda Sport Award sends a ballot with four sports finalists to administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.

Valby is the first Gator to claim the Honda Award for cross country. She is the second consecutive and third overall Gator to win the Honda Award for track and field, joining Florida’s Jasmine Moore (2023) and Yanis David (2019).

Valby’s 2023-24 Season

Valby’s 2023-24 performance is unmatched in women’s collegiate cross country/track history.

• First female distance runner in NCAA history to win five NCAA individual titles in a single season – all in at least meet record times
• Set collegiate 5,000m records set winning 2024 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles
• Meet records for NCAA 3,000m indoors and 10,000m outdoors – both with five-second winning margins
• Lowered collegiate 10,000m record by almost 28 seconds in April’s Clay Invitational
• Started 2023-24 national title streak by being first to win NCAA Cross Country in sub-19 minute time
• 2024 Bowerman Semifinalist
• USTFCCA 2023 Cross Country & 2024 Indoor and Outdoor National Athlete of the Year
• Won all 14 races competed in 2023-24 season
• Helped team to runner-up finishes at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor & Indoor meets
• 8-time USTFCCCA All-American (outdoor, indoor, Cross Country)
• 2024 SEC Women’s indoor and outdoor / 2023 Cross Country Runner of the Year
• 6-time SEC Champion (outdoor, indoor, Cross Country)
• 3-time SEC All-First Team
• Graduated cum laude with Sports Management degree in May. USTFCCCA All-Academic & SEC Academic Honor Roll

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Florida’s track and field star sweeps Honda Sport Awards this season

For the first time in over a decade a women has swept the Honda Awards for both cross country and track & field.

Executive Director of THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards Chris Voelz announced on Thursday that Florida’s [autotag]Parker Valby[/autotag] is this season’s annual Honda Sport Award recipient for track and field. It is the redshirt junior’s second Honda Award of the academic year after earning her second straight for cross country.

Valby is the first to sweep the awards since 2010-11 when Sheila Reid of the Villanova Wildcats last pulled off the coup. Only three others have achieved the feat, with Arizona Wildcat Amy Skieresz doing it back-to-back in the mid-90s while Kathy Mills broke the ceiling first with the Penn State Nittany Lions in 1977-78.

Honda Award Details

According to UF’s press release, the Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 48 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics.”

The winner of the sports award becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2024 Honda Cup, which will be presented on a live telecast on CBS Sports Network on Monday, June 24, 2024, at 7 p.m. ET, from its new home in New York City.

Valby was voted the Track & Field recipient by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Finalists for the award included McKenzie Long (Ole Miss), Maia Ramsden (Harvard) and Jaida Ross (Oregon).

Valby’s 2024 Track & Field Season info

  • Led the Florida Gators to Runner-Up finishes at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships
  • 2024 NCAA Outdoor 5000m Individual Champion
  • 2024 NCAA Outdoor 10000m Individual Champion
  • 2024 SEC Outdoor 5000m Champion
  • 2024 NCAA Indoor 3000m Individual Champion
  • 2024 NCAA Indoor 5000m Individual Champion
  • 2024 SEC Indoor 3000m Champion
  • 2024 SEC Indoor DMR Champion
  • Holds NCAA/Collegiate Record for 5000m Indoor – 14:52.79
  • Holds NCAA/Collegiate Record for 5000m Outdoor – 14:52.18
  • Holds NCAA/Collegiate Record for 10000m Outdoor – 30:50.43
  • Appeared on all seven Bowerman Watchlists
  • 2024 NCAA Div. I National Indoor Women’s Runner of the Year
  • 2024 NCAA Div. I South Region Women’s Indoor Runner of the Year
  • 2024 SEC Indoor Women’s Runner of the Year

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Two Gators earn national titles as Florida finishes 2nd in NCAA Championships

The team was a runner-up for the third time under head coach Mike Holloway while Grace Stark and Parker Valby took home individual titles.

Florida’s women’s track and field program finished second in the NCAA Championships for the second-straight year this weekend, with a pair of Gators taking home individual national titles: [autotag]Grace Stark[/autotag] and [autotag]Parker Valby[/autotag].

The team was a runner-up for the third time under head coach [autotag]Mike Holloway[/autotag] — twice in outdoor competition and once in indoor — all of which have occurred in the past two seasons.

Stark had an outstanding 2024 outdoor season and clinched the campaign with a final race to remember. She captured her second NCAA Individual Championship and first outdoor individual title in the 100m H with a 12.47 time — tying her for the third fastest in NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships history

It was also the tenth-fastest time in collegiate history and a new University of Florida school record. Additionally, Stark became the first Gator to earn the 100m H championship crown since 1992.

Valby claimed her sixth NCAA Individual Championship in her signature event — the 5000m — for the fifth of the 2023-2024 academic year and the second of the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The previous collegiate record stood at 15:03.12 before she wrapped up Saturday’s race at 14:52.18, making it Valby’s third collegiate record captured during the 2024 indoor and outdoor seasons (indoor 5000m, outdoor 5000m, outdoor 10,000m).

Possibly the most impressive feat is that Valby is the first female distance runner in NCAA history to win five NCAA Individual Titles in a single academic year.

Final Scoreboard

Place Team Points
1 Arkansas 63
2 Florida 59
3 Texas 41
4 Oregon 40.5
5 Ole Miss 38

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Florida women’s track and field adds 3 more athletes to championship roster

Eight total tickets are punched for Eugene, Oregon, next month for the Lady Gators.

The Florida women’s track and field team will send eight student-athletes to compete in the 2024 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, next month after a strong showing on the final day of the East Preliminaries.

Six athletes secured seven spots during the final day of women’s preliminary action: Flomena Asekol (1500m, 5000m), Claire Bryant (high jump), Grace Stark (100m H), Elise Thorner (3000m S), [autotag]Parker Valby[/autotag] (5000m) and Alida van Daalen (discus).

Anthaya Charlton (long jump), Gracelyn Leiseth (shot put), Bryant (long jump), van Daalen (shot put) and Valby (10,000m) already secured spots, with place finishes of twelfth or higher in each of their earlier events.

The 2024 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships will take place at the University of Oregon on Hayward Field from June 5 to 8.

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