Florida Gators Bait & Bits: Lacrosse Wins ALC, Track & Field’s Weekend, Targets Set Dates, and Bradley Beal
By Brett Kaplan
Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Welcome to Bait & Bits, a series on Hail Florida Hail that will feature one “bait” about an opposing school and some bits about the Florida Gators. Have any links that you want on Bait & Bits? Tweet it at us @HailFloridaHail or @BrettKaplan13 or email it to us at BrettKaplanHFH@gmail.com.
Bait
Women’s Lacrosse NCAA Tournament Teams. With Florida’s lacrosse team getting into the NCAA Tournament, they have to possibility to face teams they’ve already played this season. The Gators could avenge their only two losses, which were at North Carolina to start the season and at Syracuse. Overall, Florida is 10-2 against teams in the NCAA Tournament. Not bad, considering UNC and ‘Cuse were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively when UF played them.
Bits
Florida Lacrosse wins ALC Tournament.
In thrilling fashion, Florida beat Northwestern in the ALC Tournament 9-8 to get the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Gators came back from a 7-2 halftime deficit, their largest overcome in UF history. Nora Barry scored the game winning goal with 32 second left in the game to put Florida up for good on Northwestern’s home field. Barry, Taylor Bresnahan, and Mary-Sean Wilcox were named to the ALC All-Tournament Team, while Shannon Gilroy was named ALC Tournament MVP. After the win, Florida was named the four-seed in the NCAA Tournament, received a first round bye, and will face the winner of Denver and Jacksonville. Florida beat Jacksonville earlier this season, 21-5. Check out the celebration:
Track & Field Productive at LSU, Payton Jordan. Florida’s track & field team split up over the weekend and still had pretty meets. At the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, Bridgette Owens put up a personal record to win the 110 meter hurdles and Fawn Miller took the javelin throw with her personal best. Hugh Graham, Jr and Najee Glass went one-two in the 400m and Stipe Zunic won the shot put. Meanwhile at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Stanford, CA, a trio of distance runners had a pretty good day. Cory McGee and Agata Strausa were the top two collegiate finishers in the 1500m and Beckey Greene ran a personal best to finish not far behind. The outdoor track & field regular season finishes up next weekend at the Seminole Invite.
Two Football Targets Set to Announce in August. It would be great to know if two highly touted prospects are going to don the Orange and Blue before the start of the season. And it looks like we’ll get that opportunity. Four-star linebacker Adonis Thomas and four-star cornerback Jalen Thompson are set to announce in August. Thomas will announce August 1st and Thompson on the 22nd. (Zach Abolverdi, GatorSports)
Bradley Beal Showcasing His Abilities. Bradley Beal had a breakout series against the Chicago Bulls, and it looks like he’s here to stay. Like, for a long time. He’s not even 21 yet, but he’s one of the best shooters in the league. He creates one of the best backcourt tandems with John Wall. Chris Harry writes about his ascension to stardom. I’d just like to point out something I said a little over a week ago. See if you agree:
A bit of sad news to close this edition. We wish Will Muschamp the best after his father, Larry Muschamp, passed away late last week. He laid him to rest this past weekend. It must have been tough for him and his family, since Larry was only 79 years old. Best wishes to Will and the entire Muschamp family.
For more on the Gators make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@HailFloridaHail and @BrettKaplan13).