Wednesday, July 3, 2024 | General, Baseball, Men's Basketball, Football, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Softball, Men's Swimming & Diving, Track and Field, Volleyball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When Brody Donay grounded into a game-ending double play June 19 to wrap Florida's run at the College World Series, it also officially closed out the 2023-24 Florida athletic calendar.
Twenty-one sports. More than 500 student athletes.
It's never easy to winnow them down to 10, but we do it every year around this time. And '23-24, like all the rest, had some magnificent individual performances and left enduring images that won't be forgotten.
Let's recap some of the most indelible.
10) So much heartbreak, so much love
Both arenas fell into deadly silence, with every soul in the two buildings feeling a collective gut punch. The two injuries not only were devastating, but redirected their two teams' seasons.
On Sept. 17, the UF volleyball team, already with wins over No. 8 Penn State, No. 2 Stanford and No. 5 Minnesota, was up two games to none on top-ranked Wisconsin and had a lead in the third when setter Alexis Stuckey elevated for a block, then crashed to the floor in pain. Exactech Arena/O'Connell, wallowing in the electric atmosphere just seconds before, fell hushed as Stuckey was tended to. Just like that, the Gators lost the equivalent of a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback. The Gators were in a collective state of shock as Stuckey was helped off the floor. The Badgers rallied to win the match.
Absolutely devastated to share that I have suffered a season ending ACL and MCL tear. So heartbroken that I won't get another chance to play with this group. These seniors are special! The love this team and staff has for each other is… pic.twitter.com/pjuqJVsdYV
Fast forward six months to the day. March 17. The UF basketball team, in just its second season under Todd Golden, was on a stirring run to the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game, a first for the program in 10 years. But barely two minutes into the title game against Auburn, 7-foot-1 center Micah Handlogten collapsed to the floor after suffering a compound fracture to his left leg. Moments later the entire UF team was on the floor, some in tears, and hugging their fallen teammate before he was taken off on a stretcher. The Tigers went on to hand the crestfallen Gators a lopsided defeat.
In both instances, the emotional fallout of the injuries turned into outpourings of support and get-well wishes on social media from Florida fans and beyond. The basketball team wore T-shirts with "Handlogten" and his No. 3 on the back at the NCAA Tournament five days after his injury.
Obviously, these two moments go down as memorable for different reasons than normally cited here, but imagine the reception, the buzz, anticipation and support when they return to the court. Could very well make mention in our '24-25 installments a year from now.
9) Gael force transfer leads Gators back to tournament
Walter Clayton Jr.(1) posted the highest-scoring average by a Gator in 19 years.
Despite leading Bartow High to consecutive Class 6A state championships, Walter Clayton Jr. went unrecruited by power conference schools in Florida. Instead, he signed with Iona and for the Gaels (and Coach Rick Pitino) became 2023 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore, then hit the transfer portal.
Golden wasn't at UF to ignore Clayton. The two forged a bond on the player's visit and Clayton, a tremendous shooter and scorer, became of the focal point of an offense that set a program record for points per game, tallied the most victories in seven years, played for the league tournament championship and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons. In first-round NCAA action, the Gators trailed Colorado by 13 points with less than four minutes to play when Clayton, second-team All-SEC in one of the nation's best conferences, took the game over on his way to a career-high 33 points. He scored Florida's last 16 points, including a ridiculous 30-foot 3-ball with six seconds left that tied the game. UF, though, lost 102-100 on a Buffaloes' buzzer-beater, leaving Clayton to bury his head in his jersey as the opponent celebrated.
Clayton averaged 17.6 points per game, the most by a Florida player in 19 years, and after toying with the NBA evaluation process will return for a second and senior alpha male season.
After going 6-7 in his first season on the UF sideline, Coach Billy Napier went looking for an experienced quarterback to replace first-round draft pick Anthony Richardson. The portal acquisition of Graham Mertz, by way of Wisconsin, was not received enthusiastically by the UF fan base. Mertz, with his pedestrian stats for the Big Ten-middling Badgers (59.5 percent, 38 touchdowns, 26 interceptions over four seasons) was viewed by Gator Nation as a place-holder. Surely, Napier wouldn't turn his offense over to this guy.
Surely, he did.
And, surely, Mertz delivered.
Yes, the Gators endured a third straight losing season, finishing 5-7, but don't blame Mertz. All he did was complete a sterling, program-record 72.9 percent of his throws for 2,903 yards, 20 touchdowns and just three interceptions. UF finished 49th nationally in total offense at 408.8 yards per game and averaged 28.4 points per game. Those numbers should've been good enough to win more than six games, but the Gators got next-to-no help from their defense (69th nationally in yards surrendered and 129th in turnovers forced with just seven) or special teams.
Mertz, leaning on 2024 NFL first-round pick Ricky Pearsall and rising-star freshman Eugene Wilson III, gave the Gators a chance on Saturdays and far exceeded expectations. He'll be back in '24 for a fifth year that will double as a mentorship for freshman DJ Lagway, the 2023 Gatorade National Offensive Player of the Year who likely will one day appear in this space (probably multiple times).
7) Rock-solid rookie in the circle
Keagan Rothrockwon the second-most games (33) for a freshman in UF softball history.
Keagan Rothrock was named national high school player of the year by both USA Today and Gatorade in 2022, so she arrived at Florida with some credentials, but also lofty expectations. Especially given the lack of a dominant pitcher to come through the UF program the last few years.
The freshman from Whiteland, Indiana, was very good over the course of her 2024 rookie collegiate season, but shifted her right arm into another gear when the Gators needed it most.
In early May, as Coach Tim Walton's team found its collective identity during a 12-game winning streak, it was Rothrock in the circle almost exclusively. When it became apparent she could shoulder the overwhelming bulk of the load – and, frankly, needed to – Rothrock was up to the challenge. Craved it, in fact.
She started the last 15 games, a string that began with the final home game of the season-ending SEC series against Texas A&M, continued through the SEC Tournament (which the Gators won for the first time in five years), into the NCAA regional and Super regional rounds, then all four games at the Women's College World Series. Rothrock threw 82 of the team's final 95.1 innings and went 11-3 along the way, hurling the Gators within one walk-off Oklahoma home run of the WCWS championship series.
Her final numbers showed a 33-9 record (the second-most wins by a freshman in UF history), with those victories leading the nation's pitchers, a 2.59 earned-run average to go with SEC Freshman of the Year (just the third time for a Gator) and third-team All-America honors.
6) Hall of LAX fame
Maggi Hall's 119 points, including 65 goals, were the most of any player in NCAA Division I during 2024.
Florida began playing lacrosse in 2010 and instantly became a hot draw for players from the club sport hot bed in the northeast. Over the course of the first 14 seasons, UF produced 37 IWLCA All Americans, including 14 first-teamers.
Senior attack Maggi Hall became the 15th on that first-team list, but of greater significance became the first Gator to lead the nation in points, tallying 119 on 65 goals and 54 assists, to go with another 27 ground balls and six turnovers forced.
Hall, from Bel Air, Maryland, posted one first after another in helping guide the Gators to the second Final Four in program history (the first since 2012). She had 11 hat tricks and six games scoring at least five goals, including a six-goal barrage in UF's road upset of No. 4 Maryland to reach the Final Four. Hall set the program record with assists en route to becoming the first Gator to top the 100-assist milestone. Her 20 points in the NCAA Tournament were a UF record and she ended her career on a 42-game point and 15-game goal streak.
She'll be missed, but Hall's numbers in the Florida single-season record book will be around a while.
5) Elite season, elite company
Leanne Wong.chomped her way to three top-two finishes at 2024 NCAA Championships - uneven bars (first), all-around and vault (second).
The Gators had a mostly collective tough afternoon on the final day the 2024 NCAA Gymnastics Championships, but junior Leanne Wong left the Fort Worth, Texas, event with a first-place finish in the uneven bars and as the only participant with three top-2 individual finishes (with second-place finishes in the all-around and vault).
Her performance upped Wong's career All-America honors to 22.
It was quite the finish for her eventful season that also included All-SEC accolades for a third consecutive year, highlighted by her perfect 10 on the final turn of the night's final rotation that gave the Gators' a victory over eventual national champion LSU in their Feb. 23 dual meet at the sold-out O'Dome. The score marked Wong's first 10 on floor and gave her a career "Gym Slam" – perfect 10s on all four events – making her the 15th in NCAA history to record a slam and the fourth Gator to do so.
In 2023, shortstop Skylar Wallace became the first UF player to be named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I Player of the Year.
It took 12 months for the Gators to get a second.
Jocelyn Erickson was a starter in the outfield for the better part of her 2023 freshman year at Oklahoma, where she won a national championship with the mighty Sooners. Erickson, though, was recruited as a catcher (a left-handed one, at that), but the spot behind the plate wasn't coming open at OU so into the portal she went. Walton was delighted to bring her into the fold.
All Erickson did was bat .382, with 15 home runs and a program-record 86 RBI – snapping the mark set by Megan Bush back in 2010 – on the way to being named 2024 SEC Player of the Year. That was on offense. On defense, the sophomore was stellar in mentoring Rothrock and the Gators' young pitching staff, while fielding at .994 efficiency and throwing out 13 of the 19 runners that attempted to steal.
At the WCWS, Erickson threw a scare into her former team when she smashed a two-run homer against the Sooners to give the Gators an early lead in an elimination game with a berth in the championship series on the line. OU rallied to win the game (and eventually a fourth straight NCAA title), but Erickson will have two more cracks at getting back to Oklahoma City as a Gator.
3) Smoke on the water
Five-time 2024 NCAA champion (3 individual events, 2 relays) Josh Liendois just a sophomore.
Sophomore Josh Liendo put his name alongside Caleb Dressel's at the NCAA championships.
Not bad company, right?
Liendo, the sprinter from Scarborough, Canada, scored an astounding 154 of UF's 378 points by becoming the first to sweep the 50-meter and 100 freestyle events, plus the 100 butterfly, since Dressel turned that triple in both 2017 and '18. Liendo also helped the Gators not only capture the 200 medley relay but the NCAA record in the event, while swimming a leg of the winning 200 free relay, as well.
Stat: Liendo became one of just six in NCAA championship history (and the first since 1996) to win three individual titles and participate in two winning relay teams, helping guide Florida to an overall third-place finish. That's a career's worth of championships in one meet.
Meanwhile, freshman Bella Sims had a pretty good few days in Athens, Georgia, also. Sims, out of Henderson, Nevada, swam the opening leg of the victorious 800 free relay time, an event the Gators had not won since 1989. She then won the 500 and 200 free, and added a third-place in the 200 back and a second on UF's 400 free relay team.
Two weeks after winning six golds and a silver at the SEC meet, Sims' final haul at nationals looked like this: Seven All-America honors and three championships in helping UF to third-place overall finish, the program's best since winning its last national title in 2010.
The 2024 SEC Swimmer of the Year honors went to both Liendo and Sims.
In early May, the social media timelines were flooded with grousing about how the Gators' struggling baseball squad had wasted the final year of slugger/pitcher Jac Caglianone.
About six weeks later, Caglianone was launching his appropriately named "Jacs" in Omaha at the College World Series after leading the team's late-season resurgence on the way to winning the 2024 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award.
"Cags," the junior from Tampa, started all 66 games (most at first base, some on the mound, all in batting lineup) and hit .419 on 104 hits, scored 83 runs, slugged a program-record 35 homers and posted 72 RBI. Caglianone tied NCAA records for most consecutive games with a home run (9) and set a UF mark by hitting safely in 30 consecutive games. On the mound, he went 5-2 with a 4.76 ERA.
Oh yeah. He also exited his Florida career with a program-record 75 homers.
We may have seen the last of Caglianone in a UF uniform, but he'll be a high selection in the 2024 MLB Draft and coming soon to a big-league ballpark near you.
I traveled to a lot of games this season and talked to a lot of fans. My favorite question to ask was "outside of your own team, who is your favorite player to watch?"
Honestly, a case could be made for Parker Valby taking up half this list, but what fun would that be? About as much fun as racing against her.
As far as sheer domination goes, Valby belongs in a space reserved for not only the most dominant Florida athletes of all time, but at the top of the most dominant in her sport in NCAA history. Period.
The NCAA contests five national-championship distance events over the course of the cross country (fall), indoor (winter) and outdoor track (spring) seasons. Valby won all five, an achievement never done before.
— Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) June 8, 2024
The events:
6k cross country in 18:55.2 (first in NCAA history under 19 minutes)
3,000 meters (indoors) in 8:41.50 (third-fastest time in college history)
5,000 meters (indoors) in 14:52.79 (broke her own collegiate record)
10,000 meters (outdoors) in 31:46.09 (just the second time ever running the event)
5,000 meters (outdoors) in 14:52.18 (collegiate record)
Valby, who led the Gators to their first SEC cross-country title in 11 years as well as an all-time best fifth-place finish at nationals, was named the Honda Award winner for both cross-country and track and field. She also swept USTFCCCA cross country, indoor and outdoor runner of the year honors.
Quick, name a more utterly dominant season by an individual Florida athlete. Better yet, take your time.
