Despite the season being cut short, the list of Florida swimmers and divers that nabbed SEC postseason honors was a long one.
The SEC released the swimming and diving postseason awards on Tuesday afternoon, 25 of which were claimed by UF swimmers from both the men’s and women’s programs.
Florida’s No. 11-ranked men’s team, which had 16 SEC postseason award recipients, finished the season 7-2 (2-2 SEC).
Highlighting the long list of Gator recipients was sophomore Kieran Smith and men’s head coach Anthony Nesty.
Smith, who won the SEC’s Swimmer of the Meet at this year’s SEC Championships, capped off his second year in the orange and blue having been named the SEC Swimmer of the Year for the 2019-20 season.
On Feb. 19, Smith set a new NCAA and American record in the 500-yard free after touching the wall in 4:06.32. Smith followed his record-breaking performance with yet another -- this one coming in the form of an SEC and school record after a 1:30.11 200-yard split in the 800-yard free relay during the SEC Championships.
Smith’s SEC Swimmer of the Year haul marks the seventh time in ten seasons that a Florida Gator has won the award.
Meanwhile, for the second-consecutive season, Anthony Nesty was named SEC Coach of the Year.
In the second year under Nesty’s leadership, he and the Gators claimed their eighth-straight SEC title -- marking the 41st in program history. In the 2019-20 season, Nesty coached a conference-best 14 All-Americans.
Notching a spot on the SEC’s First Team for the Gators were Smith, senior Khader Baqlah, junior Clark Beach, sophomore Robert Finke and junior Gerry Quinn.
Eight other Gators made the All-SEC Second Team:
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Isaac Davis (so.)
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Will Davis (so.)
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Eric Friese (fr.)
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Brennan Gravely (fr.)
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Marco Guarente (sr.)
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Dillon Hillis (so.)
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Dakota Mahaffey (sr.)
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Grant Sanders (sr.)
Rounding out the UF-heavy list were three Florida freshman on the All-Freshman team:
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Eric Friese
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Brennan Gravely
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Kevin Vargas
As for the No. 7-ranked women’s squad, which finished as the SEC runner up, nine Gators brought home All-SEC honors, seven of which were named to the second team, and a pair were named to the freshman team.
For seniors Emma Ball, Sherridon Dressel and Bella Garafalo; and sophomores Leah Braswell and Vanessa Pearl; their places on the Second Team make for their second-straight SEC postseason honor.
Sophomores Elizabeth Perez and Emma Whitner, both divers, picked up their first conference honors of their careers -- each with Second-Team-quality seasons.
Freshman Gators Kathleen Golding and Allie Piccirillo finished their seasons on the All-Freshman team after finishing in the top eight or being the best-performing freshman in their event.
You can follow Ainslie on Twitter @AinsliesTwoBits and contact her at alee@alligator.org
