UF coach Anthony Nesty answers question from former Gators standout-turned-ESPN talent Elizabeth Beisel after the Gators clinched their 10th consecutive league title at the SEC Championships last month at Knoxville, Tenn.
SEC Masters Head to NCAAs
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On the morning of Feb. 11, mere hours before the Florida swimming and diving teams would head to Tennessee for the Southeastern Conference Championships, Anthony Nesty's cell phone buzzed. The UF coach glanced at the display, saw the call was from the team's trainer and immediately had a thought pop into his head.
"This must be a 'Bobby.' "
That would be a 'Bobby,' as in Bobby Finke, the fabulous distance and individual medley man, as well as one of the brightest stars for the United States at the Olympic Games last summer in Tokyo. Finke, it seems, has a penchant for bad luck right around the time UF is headed to big meets, and he was right on time this time. Sort of like last year, when he slipped on a batch of leaves outside Exactech Arena and sprained his foot the day before a meet. Yes, that actually happened.
This time, Nesty was told that Finke had tested positive for COVID, and along with nine-time All American Will Davis and six-time All American Dillon Hillis had entered quarantine protocols and would be scratched from the Feb. 15-19 meet.
"I had a really fiery speech ready for our guys," Nesty recalled. "I ended going with that NFL phrase they use a lot. You know, 'next man up.' What can you do?"
Answer: What the UF men always do.
Win the conference championship.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey (right) takes a moment to congratulate UF coach Anthony Nesty on the program's 10th consecutive conference championship after last month's meet at Knoxville, Tenn.
With Finke, Davis and Willis back in Gainesville, the Gators dominated the SEC meet — obliterating co-runners-up Tennessee and Alabama by a whopping 476 points — to capture their 10th straight conference title. UF finished the meet with 1,414 points, compared to 938 for the Volunteers and Crimson Tide. Florida took the lead the on second of the five-day event, keyed by a record-setting victory in the 200 freestyle relay, courtesy of Adam Chaney, Eric Friese, two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kieran Smith and Macguire McDuff (1:16.49) and surged ahead of Texas A&M. The Gators poured it on from there, winning four individual events and five relays, plus another two second-place finishes and four more individual thirds, along with a relay.
What in the world would the margin have been with Finke and his two fellow COVID casualties?
"All the teams have really good athletes," Nesty said. "We do too, but our depth is awesome."
When it was done, Florida men's swimming was just the seventh program (any sport) in league history to win at least 10 consecutive league crowns.
Rare are the dynasties when championships not only are annually celebrated, but expected. Of course, it's not as easy as it looks. Just ask the ones raising the hardware.
"The athletes, of course, make it look easy, but you have to put in the work on a day-to-day basis. For us, it's always about the consistency and the quality of work, and that work begins in September," said Nesty whose fifth-ranked squad now turns its sights to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, which start Wednesday at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. "It's a long season. You start in September, you go to March and it doesn't stop along the way. The consistency in the training, the stretching, the nutrition, the mental aspect has to be constant or else the chances of being successful will be impacted." Olympic medalists Kieran Smith (left) and Bobby Finkewill shoot for national championships this week in Atlanta.
Finke double-downed on the consistency emphasis.
"With our coaches and our swimmers, the expectations are the same every year," he said. "We're here to get better every day and to do that for ourselves, but first and foremost to do it for the team. Guys take that to heart. It's not about what we do individually, but for the program, which all reflects on our family and our club coaches and everyone who helped get us to this point."
It's a consistency that is baked into the culture, courtesy of a parade of not only All Americans who have graced the O'Dome, but "Gator Greats" who doubled as international superstars and world champions.
Friese, a junior from Potsdam, Germany, and member of his country's Olympic team last year, recalls vividly the morning his freshman season when UF icon Caeleb Dressel, four years removed from competing as a Gator (and two years before stealing the world's swimming show in Japan), showed up for practice and hopped into the lane next to Friese during a team practice. That wasn't long after Ryan Lochte ("My hero," Friese said) had shown up and done the same.
"The overall stage of swimming here is among the best in college, but now you have a guy showing up who's the best on the planet," Friese said. "I'm just so grateful that I can have this as my daily experience in practice. Sometimes I have to remind myself how special that is."
Eric Friese (right), who finished second in the 100 fly at SECs, will swim the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly at NCAAs this week.
At the Olympics, Friese's German teammates saw him in casual, friendly conversations with both Finke (with his two gold medals) and Smith (two bronze medals), and wondered how he knew these podium hoppers so well. Imagine when they saw Friese with Dressel.
Oh, and that was before Katie Ledecky entered the fold.
Ledecky, the seven-time Olympic gold-medalist, 15-time world champion and eight-time NCAA champion at Stanford, joined the Gators last fall as a volunteer assistant coach, giving the program yet another bigger-than-life personality both in the pool and roaming the deck.
"Obviously. she's the best in the world and just the quality of work she brings to the table every day keeps everybody honest," Nesty said. "When she's at practice, it's 100 percent. She challenges our men quite frequently, and for our women is just a fantastic role model. How awesome it's been to have her and have them see how she goes about her routine and takes care of herself away from the pool; just her dedication to the sport and how she trains for it every single day."
Such work ethic and star-power can't help but rub off, which clearly is the plan. Ledecky wasn't the reason the Gators smoked their SEC competition last month; they've been doing that for years. Her presence, though, along with the dominance of Finke and Smith, along with Friese, Chaney, Davis and Hillis, et al — Florida sent 17 individuals to NCAAs — have provided some great momentum for a program that already was in a class by itself in the league.
UF's mastery of the SEC, however, has not converted to the NCAA Championships. Oh, the Gators will have their moments there, no doubt, but top-ranked Texas will go to Georgia as the defending national champion, having claimed six of the last seven titles. It would take a Herculean effort — and probably some mishaps from the Longhorns — to break the UT run. A top-three finish would be a sensational capper to the 2022 season.
The 2022 Florida men's swimming and diving team raise two hands (and 10 fingers) to signifying winning their 10th consecutive SEC title last month.
It's been 38 years since Florida won a national championship in men's swimming.
"That's not going to stop us from wanting to go there and try to do something unexpected," Finke said. "One of our goals is to win all the relays, and there's a massive opportunity to do that. If we can steal some points there, maybe [Texas will] DQ one, then who knows? But we'll be happy either way because we're going to have a really good meet."
This time, Nesty is confident Finke will be there. No "Bobby" call, this time.
