Buccaneers' first appearance in Gainesville since 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (April 3, 2014) – The ETSU track & field program will send 11 student-athletes to compete in the 2014 Pepsi Florida Relays, Friday – Saturday, at James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track on the University of Florida campus.

This appearance in competition in Gainesville marks the first time the Buccaneers have competed in the Florida Relays since April 2010.

Competing for the third time in as many weeks to begin the outdoor season, a limited number of ETSU student-athletes will try their hand against some of the elite competition in the southeast. The Bucs will enter action after a solid outing last weekend at the Raleigh Relays. In Raleigh, the Blue & Gold registered top-10 finishes in eight total events and had three event winners over the two days at NC State.

ETSU will have nine student-athletes competing on Friday, including Katerina Vodova (Humpolec, Czech Republic) in the long and high jump in the afternoon as well as Filip Jalovy (Modrice, Czech Republic) and Angus Baldwin (Tumbi Umbi, Australia) running in the 1500 meter in the evening. On Saturday afternoon, Brett Squibbs (Rock Hill, S.C.) and Lexie Burley (Johnson City, Tenn.) will compete in the pole vault and triple jump, respectively.

“We look forward to sending a small group of student-athletes to the Florida Relays this weekend and hope for some big performances,” said ETSU Director of Track & Field George Watts. “The student-athletes we are sending have an opportunity to compete against some top-flight competition.”  

Collegiate action at the Florida Relays will kickoff on Friday at noon with the men’s hammer and women’s discus throw. Field events will continue throughout the day, concluding with the women’s javelin throw and men’s long jump invite at 7:30 p.m. Also, beginning around the noon hour on Friday will be running events including the women’s 100 meter hurdles. Track action will continue into the night, wrapping up with the men’s 5000 meter run at 9:30 p.m.

Competition will pick back up on Saturday morning with the women’s hammer throw at 10 a.m. Shot put events will conclude field action at the Relays at 5 p.m. Running events will commence on Saturday with relay action and will continue over the course of the day before ending with the 4x400 meter relays around 7 p.m.

“I am very pleased with the start of the outdoor season as Dede Edgecombe and Verena Tobis are likely qualifiers for the first round of the NCAA Championships,” said Watts. “As a matter of fact, we have added three new school records to add to the 14 others that have been established during the 2013 outdoor and the 2013-14 indoor seasons."

Meet information and schedules for the 2014 Pepsi Florida Relays can be accessed by visiting GatorZone.com, while live results can be viewed at DeltaTiming.com. Complete recaps of ETSU’s performances each day will be available at ETSUBucs.com.

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