TAMPA, Fla. — The USF men's track and field team continues to make history this season. The Bulls added their first-ever AAC outdoor championship to their first-ever indoor crown when they earned first place this weekend in San Antonio.
"You get into this business to try to be successful," head coach Erik Jenkins said on the team's day off. "Our focus here is to try to be a team that can compete for titles in the AAC, and we want to have a national presence. For us, it’s just about going out and doing your job. That’s our expectation."
Markel Jones earned conference indoor and outdoor Freshman of the Year honors. He took gold in the 110-meter hurdles and silver in the 400-meter hurdles.
Jones, who ran sprints and played football at Lake Mary High School, didn't start his career as a hurdler. His grandmother, Arlene, who was a hurdler at the University of Alabama, said he should give it a try.
"She was like, 'Oh, you should try hurdles. You have long legs.' And I was like, I don’t know. I don’t know," Jones laughed. The height of collegiate 110-meter hurdles is 42 inches compared to 39 inches at the high school level. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but three inches is like three feet in track and field.
Jones credits his success with all the work he puts in between competitions.
"Going to the meet is the easy part. We practice so much. Practice is the hard part, where you get to understand, it’s the learning part of it," he explained. "The meet part, you just go out there and do what you do in practice."
Sophomore jumper Goodness Iredia started off as a high jumper, but he quickly fell in love with the long jump and triple jump. Despite the fact that he's only focused on the long and triple for two seasons, he soared his way to a double gold medal at the conference championships.
It's fair to say that Goodness, a native of Nigeria, is named appropriately.
"I’m just trying to live up to my name. Goodness. Not everybody’s going to like you in life. I’m just trying to be good to everybody," he explained while talking about his unique first name.
Iredia had offers from Power Five schools when he decided to transfer from Cumberland University in Tennessee, but he said he couldn't pass up the chance to help build the foundation of something special.
"I wanted to be part of the history of what’s going to happen at USF," he added. "So let me just come and be part of the history that USF’s going to make. I’m here now, and I’m part of it."
The postseason competition ramps up to another level when the NCAA Regionals get underway next Wednesday in Lexington, Kentucky. Jenkins thinks his athletes have what it takes to succeed at Regionals and move on to the NCAA Championships.
"The beautiful thing about our sport is it doesn’t care. Either you’re good, or you’re not, at that moment," Jenkins added. "So we want to put ourselves in a position to be very good at that moment, at the national championship."
