2017 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Georgia (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Event Previews
- Live Results
For the first time in program history, the Florida Gators went scoreless at the women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship. A young Gators’ squad of 13 women, including 7 freshmen, traveled to the meet. While they walked away with a handful of top 30 finishers, the Gators were unable to get on the scoreboard throughout the 4-day meet.
Throughout the history of their program, the Gators have never finished lower than 20th at the NCAA Championship meet, which occurred in 1997. They’ve also never scored fewer than 58 points, which came with their 19th place finish at the 2000 NCAA Championships.
At the 2010 NCAA Championships, the Florida Gators, behind legendary collegian Gemma Spofforth, won the NCAA title by 2.5 points over Stanford. In the 7 years since, Florida has dropped to 0 points, while Stanford now stands as the best collegiate program in the country.
Florida’s drop came in stages. In the years after their title win, they hovered around the bottom half of the top 10. They then fell to 19th at the 2016 NCAA Championships last season.
Florida’s finishes at the NCAA Championships Over 10 Years
- 2007 – 7th, 203 points
- 2008 – 6th, 277.5 points
- 2009 – 7th, 239.5 points
- 2010 – CHAMPIONS, 382 points
- 2011 – 7th, 226 points
- 2012 – 10th, 160 points
- 2013 – 6th, 305 points
- 2014 – 6th, 239 points
- 2015 – 9th, 129 points
- 2016 – 19th, 63.5 points
- 2017 – NF, 0 points
4 Florida teams that finished higher than the Gators at NCAAs: Florida St., Florida International, Miami, and Florida Gulf Coast.
It’s worth noting that there were several adversities for the Florida women to overcome this season, including not being able to train or compete in their home facility while the Stephen C. O’Connell center was being renovated. They were also in their first season without former Associate Women’s Head Coach Martyn Wilby, who resigned from the position last May. Their roster was heavily made up of underclassmen, who hadn’t yet experienced the grueling schedule and pressure of an SEC or NCAA Championship meet.
But still – with the NCAA Championships coming up next week, the Florida men seem to have thrived in spite of similar challenges.
The Florida roster has struggled to maintain stability from year-to-year. After graduating a senior class of 9 last season, the Gators had just 3 in 2017. Their class of 2018, meanwhile, shrank from 7 to just 4, and their class of 2019. They lost 3 from their class of 2020 as well.
“It’s been a long week,” said head coach Gregg Troy in a press release. “We certainly weren’t as good as what we wanted to be point-wise, but we got a lot of experience as a really young group. I think it’s going to pay off big for them in the future. We’ve just got to go back and reevaluate and see where we are moving forward.”
Head Coach Gregg Troy will now have 3 more years to work with the several freshmen who qualified for the NCAA meet. They’ll return next season with the valuable experience of competing at NCAAs. The team also gets a sure-fire NCAA scorer in Hungarian Liliana Szilagyi, who didn’t compete this year in her freshman season. She was an Olympic finalist in both the 100 and 200 fly and is one of the best junior swimmers anywhere in the world.
For now, however, the focus turns to the men’s meet, which will take place this week back in Indianapolis, where Caeleb Dressel and the Florida men will shoot for a fourth consecutive top-5 finish.
Congrats Gator’s Women. What an accomplishment to make it to NCAAs. The experience will be invaluable and we look forward to watching your progress in the years to come!
Ironic that Coach Troy was the Women’s Coach when originally hired at Florida when the programs were spilt. The Men were director then by the great Coach Ron Ballatore of UCLA lore. So we have come full circle with the comments, hired as the women’s coach, head coach for the entire program starting in 1999 I believe, now you should just coach the men…
First there is a 100′ pool in St. Petersburg on the campus of USF-St. Pete. Built in the 1930s I think was a municipal pool before the campus was put there.
Second, why would anyone scream bias for this article? It is news and that is what this site is suppose to report. Believe me when I saw UF didn’t score a single point I was shocked and wondered what happened. Still would like to know some more detail, but I suppose this site is not a place for investigative reporting.
Clearly Gregg Troy’s record of swimmers can speak for itself. The man has success written all over him. While it is worth noting that they did not score a point, let’s remember that it’s the SWIMMER that is actually doing the swimming- NOT THE COACH. They have been supplied with all the tools they need, but what they chose to do with it is on the swimmer. So let’s give it a rest…
I mean how many Olympians, NCAA Champions, World Medalist, have YOU produced…?? Just a thought…
There’s a lot more that goes in to it other than just the coach.
So any scoring recruits coming in next season? Besides Liliana Szilagyi?
“Their class of 2018, meanwhile, shrank from 7 to just 4, and their class of 2019.”
In my opinion this line of the otherwise fine article is unclear. What exactly happened to their class of 2019? Are you saying it shrank by the same amount or something else? I would like to know what happened to their class.
Otherwise, a very interesting and pertinent story in the aftermath of NCAAs. Thanks.
Apropos Article.
My wife, who isn’t a swim freak like me, asked how the Florida women did and I almost thought it was a mistake that I didn’t see them on the list of point totals.
Can we expect an article written about a men’s program after this week? I am sure you can dig one up.
Well yes. Since the men’s meet is this week, there will be things to report on… Not sure why anyone would expect otherwise.
Here, I’ll write one up for the last week for ya:
NCAA men’s teams…still…practicing! But like, less yardage, for the most part.
Back to you, Chet.
Best. Wrapup. Ever.