Florida’s No. 1 men’s and No. 5 women’s track and field teams concluded a competitive weekend at the Razorback Invitational on Friday and Saturday with some of the best times and marks in the nation.
Walk by McKethan Stadium this week and listen. Really listen.
In a sold-out O’Connell Center on Friday night, the Florida gymnastics team put on a show for its home crowd. Its efforts didn’t go to waste as the No. 5 Gators (3-1, 1-1 SEC) overcame No. 1 Oklahoma 198.150-198.125. In addition to two perfect 10.0s in one night, Florida also took first in three of its four events.
Junior Alfredo Perez’s roar echoed inside the Perry Indoor Facility at the Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday. He had just turned the bad fortune of a serve’s awkward bounce off the net into an aggressive backhand winner. The shot kept Perez alive in the first set tiebreaker of a highly competitive match he’d eventually win, 7-6(6), 6-2, over South Florida senior Grayson Goldin.
Every competing senior on the Florida women’s tennis team won their singles match in a 4-0 rout of Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, leaving UF’s freshmen unable to finish their matches. During Sunday’s matchup with Louisiana-Monroe at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, it was their turn to close the dual-match out.
As the final seconds ticked away in the third quarter, Florida clung to a five-point lead. With Georgia dribbling out the clock for the final shot of the period, UF guard Funda Nakkasoglu and forward Haley Lorenzen double-teamed Georgia’s Que Morrison and forced a turnover. Nakkasoglu grabbed the loose ball, raced down the court and banked in a buzzer-beating layup.
As senior Anna Danilina crouched down awaiting a serve, the home crowd at the Ring Tennis Complex began to clap in unison, a signal to Cal State Fullerton freshman Genevieve Zeidan that the match was about to come to an end.
The Gators men’s and women’s track and field teams had a solid first day of action Friday at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Caeleb Dressel racked up three event wins for the men, and freshman swimmer Taylor Ault continued her success in Florida’s dual-swim meet in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday.
Alex McMurtry didn’t hesitate. Facing the long stretch of mat ahead of her, the All-American threw her hands above her head before bringing them in close to her chest and breaking into a full sprint. A sold-out O’Connell Center watched as she spun into the air and touched her feet down to the ground in her first of two perfect 10.0s of the night.
For the second time this season, the UF gymnastics team will host a No. 1 team at home. The No. 5 Gators (2-1, 1-1 SEC) are set to take on No. 1 Oklahoma (3-0, 1-0 Big 12) tonight at 6:45 in the nation’s top gymnastics match of the weekend.
It was sink or swim for the Florida women's basketball team as it hit the road to play against the second-ranked team in the nation on Thursday.
The Florida men’s tennis team is looking to start dual-match play 2-0 for the eighth consecutive season this weekend.
Florida’s No. 1-ranked men’s and No. 5-ranked women’s track and field teams will head to Arkansas to compete in the Razorback Invitational this weekend for the Gators’ fourth meet of the 2018 indoor season.
The Florida men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will take on the Tennessee Volunteers at 1 p.m. Friday in Knoxville.
The Gators women’s tennis team has faced some of the best programs in the nation this season. When it comes to its upcoming opponent in Cal State Fullerton, however, the squad is left entirely in the dark.
As senior forward Haley Lorenzen pulled down her final rebound Sunday afternoon against Ole Miss, there were no opponents around her. Her boxout created enough space to take one step to her right, elevate and bank home the eventual game-winning score with 27 seconds left on the clock.
For Larry Nassar, a former doctor for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, there is no punishment cruel enough.
For most of Sunday afternoon, it looked like former Florida football player Dante Fowler Jr. would get a chance to play in the Super Bowl.
The Gators had already clinched the match. A crowd of over 350 fans had dwindled down to just a handful. In its home opener against UCF on Monday night, Florida was just about ready to return to the locker room victorious. But junior McClain Kessler was still battling for a third-set win on the No. 6 singles court.
Solutions by The State News
