AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track & field travels to Florida for the second consecutive week to compete in the Pepsi Florida Relays at James G. Presley Stadium at Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Florida March 29-30.
The action will start Friday at 10:00 a.m. CT with the women's hammer throw and pick back up Saturday with the men's discus throw at 8:00 a.m. CT.
The Tigers look to carry the positive momentum into Gainesville after a successful meet last weekend at the FSU Relays. The Tigers had first place finishes in eight different events.
"I thought we had an excellent competition, and we had some good performances," Auburn track & field head coach Leroy Burrell said. "It was another opportunity for us to add some more irons to the fire and test a few more people. We got to see where they stand as far as the SEC and the national lists. I'm proud to see the progress that we've made. We're starting to round into a solid group."
Highlighting the team's performance in Tallahassee were the throwers on the women's side.
Senior Shaniya Holley had a gold-worthy finish in javelin. Making her outdoor season debut, she had a throw of 51.74m, which was good enough for No. 4 in the SEC and No. 7 in the nation.
Shot put and discus duo freshman Marley Raikiwasa and sophomore Megan Hague finished in the top three for both events. Raikiwasa finished first in shot put with a throw of 16.25m while Hague had a PR in the event and earned second (16.17m). In the discus throw, Hague finished third (50.80m) and Raikiwasa finished just ahead of her in second (56.04m).
"We're going to run our distance group who hasn't performed yet this outdoor season and we're expecting some solid things from them," Leroy Burrell said.
During the indoor season at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas senior Ryan Kinnane broke the 42-year-old school record in the men's mile (3:58.28) set in 1982. He became the second Tiger to run a sub-four mile indoors in school history.
In the same event, freshman Max Hardin ran a 4:01.50 to break the previous freshman school record set by Felix Kiboiywo in 2007.
On the women's side, freshman Camila Gomes broke the Auburn freshman mile record at the Music City Challenge in Nashville. She crossed the line in 4:38.18 to break the previous freshman mark set the previous year. It was the second-fastest indoors time ever by an Auburn woman.
Going toe-to-toe with the men and women this weekend will be No. 20/7 South Carolina, Missouri, Vanderbilt, No. 14/17 Southern California and host Florida.
"This is a big one. It's a national caliber meet," Leroy Burrell said. "We'll have the majority of the SEC teams and some of the best programs in the country there. It's going to be an outstanding meet."
Live results for the meet can be found at deltatiming.com.