UF picked up where it left off in 2018: The women leaving their opponents in the dust while the men still try and take that next step to catch up.
Florida’s cross country team will be traveling to Jacksonville to compete in the University of North Florida Invitational on Friday at 8:30 a.m. to start its 2019 campaign. The team has competed in the event each year since 2016. Here are some things to know going in:
The Florida cross country program has high expectations entering the 2019 season. Assistant coach Chris Solinksy was not hesitant to express that.
Florida was not short of representation at the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships in Stanford, California, this week. The five-day event had 26 current Gators competing, along with six UF alumni. Current and former UF athletes collected 10 medals in total from Wednesday to Sunday.
Eight medals in eight days.
Florida had been in this situation before.
Grant Holloway raised his arms in celebration as he crossed the line to win his sixth high-hurdle championship. The junior from Chesapeake, Virginia, never left a national championship hurdle race without a gold medal. Now he will turn professional, according to coach Mike Holloway, leaving UF as one of the most decorated track athletes in the history of the NCAA and one of the best athletes to ever come through Gainesville.
Grant Holloway usually has a good start. Friday in Austin, Texas, was no different.
Two events, three years, six championships.
Historic.
The Florida softball team had just won its second national championship in as many years. Robert Reed watched his freshman daughter, Megan, sprint from the dugout with the rest of the 2015 squad to join the celebratory dogpile. The moment for Robert was bittersweet. His daughter was now a national champion, but she was also no longer a softball player, a sport she’d been in for fifteen years.
The final chapter of the Florida men’s tennis team’s season came to a close on Thursday night, as freshman Sam Riffice fell to Illinois junior Aleks Kovacevic in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Individual Championships.
Sam Riffice looked like he had been there before.
Sierra Brooks waited anxiously in the clubhouse after finishing the stroke play portion of the NCAA Championships in a tie for first with Arkansas’ Maria Fassi.
Sierra Brooks pumped her fist and followed her ball as it maneuvered slightly from left to right and into the hole. The 15-foot putt on the ninth green put the junior at 4 under for the competition and in the outright lead for the NCAA individual title heading into the final day of the NCAA Championships.
In the midst of the sweltering midday sun, it looked as if there was hope for the Florida men’s tennis team.
It’s not supposed to be this easy.
Sophomores John Axelsen and Chris Nido headlined a solid start to the first round of the NCAA Regional Tournament for the Florida men’s golf team.
The Florida lacrosse team bounced back from a rough start to the 2019 campaign.
Solutions by The State News
