The No. 2 Florida men and No. 4 Florida women hit the road this weekend to participate in the 103rd Drake Relays, hosted by Drake University, and the Payton Jordan Invitational, hosted by Stanford University. The Gators will compete at the Drake Relays on Friday and Saturday, April 27-28. A select group from the distance corps will travel to the Golden State to compete in the Payton Jordan Invitational on Sunday, April 29.

The Orange and Blue last competed just a week ago as they hosted the fifth annual Tom Jones Memorial Classic, the final home meet of the season. 12 victories headlined the event for Florida, led by SEC Men’s Runners of the Week, the Florida men’s 4x100-meter relay team, composed of Jeff Demps (Winter Garden, Fla.), Tony McQuay (Riviera Beach, Fla.), Leonardo Seymore (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Dedric Dukes (Miami, Fla.), and SEC Co-Men’s Field Athlete of the Week, Jeremy Postin (Auburndale, Fla.).

The Gator quartet clocked the second-fastest time in the nation this season by winning the 4x100-meter relay at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic this past weekend with a time of 38.67. The time goes down as the third-fastest time in the world this season, behind only Auburn’s nation-leading time of 38.30 and a world-leading time of 37.82 by the Racers Track Club of Jamaica. It is the fastest collegiate time ever clocked at Percy Beard Track and goes down as the fifth-fastest time in Florida school history. It is the fastest time ever run in UF history before the month of June.

Postin claimed yet another hammer victory this season, as the junior thrower broke his own UF record with a throw of 68.07m/223-4 at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic this past weekend. Setting a new personal best, Postin turned in the best throw in the SEC this season and now ranks fourth in the NCAA.

NCAA Indoor Champion Omar Craddock (Killeen, Texas) will compete in the men’s triple jump on Saturday, while SEC Indoor Champion Marquis Dendy (Middleton, Del.) will participate in both the long jump on Friday and will join Craddock in the triple jump on Saturday. SEC Indoor 60 Meter Hurdles Champion Eddie Lovett (West Palm Beach, Fla.) will compete in the men’s 110 meter hurdles preliminaries on Friday and will look to advance to the finals of his first Drake Relays on Saturday afternoon.

A group from the women’s distance corps will compete at Stanford University on Sunday, as Shelby Hayes (Winter Park, Fla.), Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.), Mandy Perkins (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Agata Strausa (Riga, Latvia) will all race in the women’s 1,500 meters. Senior Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia) will take part in the first section of the women’s 3000 meter steeplechase on Sunday evening.

Live stats and streaming video for the 103rd Drake Relays can be found at www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com. Live stats for the Payton Jordan Invitational can be found here. A full recap and results from each day of competition can be found on www.GatorZone.com.

The Gators have not competed as a team at the Drake Relays since the 97th running of the Drake Relays in 2006. Before then, the Gators had not competed as a team at the Drake Relays since 1968. Drake Relays is one of the premier meets in the U.S. and the 2012 event features 7,056 athletes, including 125 men’s teams with 1,450 athletes competing and 131 women’s teams with 1,289 athletes competing. This is the final weekend of competition for the Gators heading into the 2012 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by LSU.

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