The Southeastern Conference announced its 2023 postseason awards Wednesday. Florida earned 28 honors on the All-SEC teams and earned the men’s and women’s SEC freshman swimmer of the year awards.
Head coach Anthony Nesty was titled the SEC Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year. Former head coach Randy Reese was the only other Florida coach to win both honors in the same season in 1990.
Nesty earned SEC Men’s Coach of the Year for a fifth-straight season. He became the only Florida coach to win the award in each of his first three seasons at the helm.
For the first time, Nesty took home the SEC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year to become the fifth Florida coach to win the award.
Joshua Liendo claimed the SEC Men’s Freshman Swimmer of the Year title.
Straight off his first year, Liendo won seven medals at the SEC Championships. He holds the second-fastest 100-yard butterfly time in Florida history with a clocked time of 44.11 seconds.
The Canadian native broke his own national record twice in the 100-meter butterfly in the 2023 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials with a final time of 50.78 seconds.
Zoe Dixon won SEC Women’s Freshman Swimmer of the Year.
In the 2023 SEC Championships, Dixon recorded the 16th-fastest 400-yard individual medley time in the country this season with a 4:06.18-minute time.
In the 200-meter individual medley, she had the second-fastest time by a freshman in the country this season and the 18th-fastest time overall at 1:55.23 minutes.
Nine Florida men gained spots on the All-SEC First Team: junior Adam Chaney, graduate student Dillon Hillis, Liendo, sophomore Macguire McDuff, graduate student Alberto Mestre, senior Alfonso Mestre, junior Jake Mitchell, freshman Aleksas Savickas and sophomore Julian Smith. Four Gator women earned spots on the All-SEC First Team: YEAR Talia Bates, sophomore Micayla Cronk, sophomore Ekaterina Nikonova and sophomore Emma Weyant.
Senior Leonardo Garcia, sophomore Joaquin Gonzalez Pinero, senior Eric Friese and senior Tyler Watson earned a spot on the All-SEC Second Men’s Team. The All-SEC Second Women’s Team included senior Maha Amer, graduate student Nina Kucheran, senior Katie Mack, sophomore Olivia Peoples and sophomore Aris Runnels.
On the All-SEC Freshman Team, four Gators men took spots — freshman Eric Brown, Liendo, freshman Giovanni Linscheer and Savickas. Dixon and Hayden Miller made the women’s team.
Contact Krisha Sanghavi at ksanghavi@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @krishasang.
Krisha Sanghavi is a third-year public relations and economics major. In her free time, she loves cheering on Miami sports teams and spending time with her friends.
