Great to be a Florida Gator in 2009-10

When it comes to athletic programs, the University of Florida will be second to one – perennial champion Stanford – when the final standings of the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup are announced following the completion of the College World Series.

The runner-up finish by the Gators represents their best finish ever in the competition, which is given by the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors of America (NACDA) and Learfield Sports. Stanford totaled 1,508.50 points for its 16th consecutive victory.

Florida was second with 1,237.25 points and Virginia was third with 1,189.25, with UCLA fourth with 1,034. Both Florida and UCLA reached the CWS in Omaha, Neb., and while the Gators were eliminated from the tournament and finished tied for 7th with Arizona State, the points they will receive will be enough to keep them second even if UCLA captures first place, which is worth 100 points.

The University of North Carolina won the first Directors’ Cup (then sponsored by Sears) from the 1993-94 season. Stanford has dominated ever since. Florida and North Carolina tied for second behind the Cardinals following the 1997-98 season, so this year’s solo second will surpass that effort. Since the advent of national all-sports rankings beginning with the 1983-84 academic year, Florida is the only program that has been ranked in the Top 10 every season.

This year’s runner-up finish was fashioned by 14 Top-10 team finishes, nine of which were in the Top 5. The Gators won national championships in two winter sports – women’s swimming and diving (head coach Gregg Troy) and men’s indoor track and field (head coach Mike Holloway) – and had runner-up performances in the spring sports of women’s tennis (head coach Roland Thornqvist) and men’s outdoor track and field (Holloway).

“The NCAA were certainly highlights of a year which saw so many Top-10 finishes by Gator teams,” Florida Athletics Director Jeremy Foley said. “Looking to be among the teams in the hunt at the end is the goal of all of our student-athletes and coaches. We are so fortunate that they compete so hard and represent the University of Florida so well. We look forward to the future as the Gators continue to work toward more success.”

Florida has 21 varsity sports, offering nine for men (football, cross country, basketball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, golf, tennis, outdoor track and field and baseball) and 12 for women (volleyball, cross country, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, lacrosse, tennis, golf and softball).

In addition to the two national championships and two national runner-up finishes, Florida was third in football (head coach Urban Meyer), third in women’s outdoor track and field (Holloway), fourth in women’s indoor track and field (Holloway), fifth in gymnastics (head coach Rhonda Faehn), fifth in men’s swimming and diving (Troy), tied for fifth in softball (head coach Tim Walton), tied for seventh in baseball (head coach Kevin O’Sullivan) and tied for ninth in men’s tennis (head coach Andy Jackson) and volleyball (head coach Mary Wise).

Stanford, meanwhile, fields 31 athletic teams – 15 for men and 16 for women – and managed to win national titles in women’s tennis and men’s volleyball while finishing second in women’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s swimming, men’s gymnastics and women’s water polo. Florida, of course, does not field teams in men’s volleyball, men’s gymnastics and women’s water polo, so an argument can be made that Florida’s program is comparable.

The Gators’ overall excellence really showed itself in Southeastern Conference competition. Florida won seven team championships during the 2009-10 academic year – baseball, women’s cross country, gymnastics, soccer, women’s tennis, women’s indoor tracn and field and men’s outdoor track and field. Those championships helped Florida sweep the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group SEC All-Sports titles – the men won their 14th, the women their 17th and the overall team their 20th.

Individually, the Gators also flourished with 15 NCAA titles by 14 athletes. Junior Conor Dwyer won the 200 and 500 freestyle titles at the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Columbus, Ohio, and teammate Shaune Fraser won his second straight 200 butterfly crown. Senior Gemma Spofforth won her third straight 100 backstroke title in the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at West Lafayette, Ind., and was joined by Shara Stafford, Stephanie Napier and Sarah Bateman on the Gators’ winning 200-yard freestyle relay team.

In track and field, senior Mariam Kevkhishvili swept the shot put events at both the NCAA indoor and outdoor meets for the second straight year, while senior Charlotte Browning won the mile at the NCAA indoor meet and captured the 1,500 meters at the NCAA outdoor meet. Sophomore Christian Taylor won the men’s triple jump at both the indoor and outdoor meets. Sophomore Jeff Demps put his time away from the football to good use by winning the 60-meter dash at the indoor meet and the 100-meter title at the outdoor competition. He also anchored Florida’s winning 4×100 relay team that consisted of football teammate Chris Rainey, Jeremy Hall and Terrell Wilks. Senior Evelien Dekkers won Florida’s first women’s javelin title.

Kevkhishvili, Taylor and Demps also were among the 10 men and 10 women finalists for The Bowerman, track and field’s equivalent to football’s Heisman Trophy. The winners will be announced on July 12.

Meanwhile, a former Florida track athlete won a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Steve Messler was a member of the U.S. four-man bobsled team.

Florida also had 10 of the 31 SEC Player of the Year/Athlete of the Year winners, led by quarterback Tim Tebow, who not only was the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year in football but also the sport’s student-athlete of the year. He was one of six Academic All-Americans and he also won the Victor Campbell Award – the sport’s academic Heisman – to join former Gators Brad Culpepper (1991) and Danny Wuerffel (1996) as winners of the award from the National Football Foundation.

Indeed, the Gators continued their academic success. Seven teams – women’s basketball, women’s golf, gymnastics, women’s swimming, men’s tennis and volleyball – had 100 percent graduation success rates. The overall athletic program, meanwhile, produced an 85 percent graduation success rate, six above the national average and second best in the SEC to only Vanderbilt.

Every one of the schools 21 teams finished in good academic standing in the latest academic performance rates released last week. None of the teams is close to the 925 cutoff rate that leads to loss of scholarships. Football was at 971, third best in the SEC and in the 80-90th percentile nationally. Volleyball was at 995 (out of a perfect score of 1,000) and women’s cross country came in at 992.

Overall, Florida’s student-athletes had a combined 3.04 grade-point average in the fall and a 3.01 grade-point average in the spring, with 177 student-athletes earned spots on the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

All and all, it wasn’t good to be a Florida Gator in 2009-10.

It was g-g-g-g-r-r-r-reat – once again.