The University of Florida track & field programs gear up for the beginning of NCAA competition, as the Gators stay in the Sunshine State for the NCAA East Preliminary Round in Jacksonville, Fla. The three-day meet, hosted by the University of North Florida, marks the opening rounds of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

The Gator men have placed in the top three at the last three NCAA Outdoor Championships, while the Florida women recorded a third-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships. 48 individual qualifiers and 24 relay teams from each region will compete at either the East or West Preliminary Rounds, as the qualifiers are then whittled down to 12 individuals and six relays from each region who will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Florida has qualified 45 slots (21 men, 24 women) for this weekend’s NCAA East Preliminary Round. The first day of competition begins with the men’s javelin, as sophomore Stipe Zunic (Zadar, Croatia) will look to continue his hot streak of six straight titles in 2012, going undefeated during the outdoor season. Also on Thursday, sophomore sprinter Darshay Davis (Mirimar, Fla.) will look to advance to the quarterfinals of the women’s 100 meters, as she is seeded in the top-10 in both the 100 and 200 meters heading into the weekend. Senior sprinter Jeff Demps (Winter Garden, Fla.) is the top seed in the men’s 100 meters while junior Tony McQuay (Riviera Beach, Fla.) is fourth in the men’s 400 meters, another Thursday evening race.

The opening day of the NCAA East Preliminary Round will also feature sophomore Miami natives Ebony Eutsey (Miami, Fla.) and Lanie Whittaker (Miami, Fla.), as both in the hunt for a trip to Des Moines, ranking fourth and third in the women’s 400 meters, respectively. Their race is at 7:45 p.m. ET on Thursday evening. The Gators boast two women in the top 10 of the 1,500 meters, as sophomore Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.) and Agata Strausa (Riga, Latvia) are poised for strong races this weekend.

On the weekend, there are four Gators who are double-dipping, as junior jumper Omar Craddock (Killeen, Texas), sophomore sprinter Davis, freshman jumper Marquis Dendy (Middleton, Del.) and junior hurdler Ugonna Ndu (Newark, N.J.) will all look to qualify in multiple individual events. Craddock and Dendy will each compete in both Friday’s men’s long jump and Saturday’s men’s triple jump. Davis will participate in the first round of the women’s 100 meters on Friday evening and the women’s 200 meters on Saturday evening. Ndu is the lone hurdler competing in multiple events, as she will look to advance to Des Moines in both the women’s 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles.

The meet central for this weekend’s NCAA East Preliminary Round can be found here, along with live video streaming of the weekend’s events. Full results and recaps of each day’s events can be found on GatorZone.com.

For all of the latest information on Florida track and field, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/trackfield or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow Florida track and field on Twitter at @GZTrackField or www.twitter.com/GZTrackField. You can also find the Gators on Facebook.

NCAA EAST PRELIMINARY ROUND (MAY 24-26, 2012 :: JACKSONVILLE, FL)

 Shading denotes participation is contingent on advancing from First Round