Nina Kucheran swimming breaststroke at the 2023 NCAA Championships (Photo courtesy of @GatorsSwimDv twitter)

Florida Fall Sports Beginning to Heat Up

Jackson Colding September 28, 2023 Gators Cross Country, Gators Men's Basketball, Gators Swimming and Diving, NCAA, SEC, Track and Field 652 Views

Tomorrow kicks off a big weekend for Florida sports with both Cross Country and Swimming and Diving in action tomorrow. Men’s basketball is also one step closer to beginning the season with its SEC TV schedule having been announced. They also began preseason practice Monday.

Cross Country Travels to FSU for Invitational

Florida Gators Cross Country is traveling to Tallahassee for the FSU XC Invitational Friday morning. The Gators are looking to replicate a lot of their success from the Mountain Dew Invitational, where the men finished 3rd with 117 points and the women finished 1st with 38 points. The men’s 8k is at 7:40 and the women’s 5k is at 8:15.

The men are sending 10 athletes to the meet, most notably Joe Wester, Ethan Geiger, Javi Vento, Josh Stern and Orlando Cicilloni. They were Florida’s five best runners at the Mountain Dew Invitational 8k.

The women are also sending 10 athletes to the meet. They are sending Liina Winborn, Rylee Pustilnik and Olivia Jones to the invitational as their most notable competitors. These are three Gators that are playing in their second meet in a row, and they had high finishes at the Mountain Dew Invitational three-mile run.

Swim and Dive Teams Open Season

The Florida Gators Swim and Dive teams look to defend their SEC Championships this year when they begin their seasons tomorrow. Women’s swim travels to Vanderbilt and both the men and women’s swim teams are swimming against Florida Atlantic and Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale. They take on FAU at 1 p.m. and Nova Southeastern at 4 p.m. Men’s and women’s diving both take on Miami in a diving-only meet.

The Gators’ captains for men’s swimming are Julian Smith, Jake Mitchell and Mason Laur. The women’s swimming captains are Emma Weyant, Olivia Peoples and Micayla Cronk.

The men’s diving captain is Anton Svirskyi, and the women’s diving captain is Caroline Pagac.

Men’s Basketball Ramping Up

On Monday, preparations for the second year of the Todd Golden era kicked off with preseason practice beginning on Monday. The Gators are looking to improve from going 16-17 overall and 9-9 in conference play.

The networks where these conference games can be watched was announced today. The January 6 and January 13 home games against Kentucky and Arkansas are confirmed to be on ESPN.

Florida’s matchups against Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, LSU, their road matchup against Georgia, both matchups against Vanderbilt, their home game against Missouri and the South Carolina game will all be on SEC Network.

Florida’s road matchups against Tennessee, Missouri, their home matchup against Georgia, the Kentucky game at Rupp Arena, the Texas A&M game and both Alabama games will be broadcasted on one of ESPNs family of networks.

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About Jackson Colding

Jackson Colding is a second-year journalism sports and media student at the University of Florida.
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