Alligator Army

Chomping At Bits: Florida Lacrosse, Too Close To The Sun

2012-05-26T14:00:59Z

Chomping At Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find. Got a link we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB.

Florida lacrosse's "sunburn": I really enjoyed this Scott Carter piece on the end of Florida's season on Friday. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)

Allie Will, Embree/Mather head to "Elite Eight": Will's made up for her struggles in team competition with a strong singles push at the 2012 NCAA Championships, and the indefatigable team of Lauren Embree and Joanna Mather is now pushing for a national title, too. (GatorZone)

Florida women's golf finishes 12th at NCAA Championships: And, because I know you care: 19 shots back of winner Alabama. Isabelle Lendl starred with a fantastic final round 66. (GatorZone)

Chandler Parsons has torn labrum: So CP's second-team NBA All-Rookie good with a torn muscle? That's cool. (Adam Silverstein, Only Gators)

Movie recommendation of the week: I saw The Five-Year Engagement late last night, and I found it well worth my time and my Amazon Local-bought Fandango ticket, despite being a bit long and meandering for a while. It's uncommonly honest, and has one side-splittingly funny scene (Alison Brie is FANTASTIC throughout), but the best parts about it were the cinematography and the youngish couple of five years who groaned throughout the movie because of its relevance to their life. Also, venerable Ann Arbor sandwich shop Zingerman's is both lampooned and showcased. ("Hell," he thought, "I'll write about the movies I see somewhere.")

As always: Talk about any and all of this and/or anything else you have to say in the comments. Need more Alligator Army in your life? Like AA on Facebook, follow AA on Twitter, and download the SB Nation Android app to take all of our Gators content — and the rest of SB Nation — with you on the go.

A Dream Dashed: Florida Lacrosse Collapses, Falls In Overtime To Syracuse In Final Four

2012-05-26T00:42:19Z

The young Florida Gators were flying high, looking for all the world like the nation's most potent and complete women's lacrosse team. Then the Syracuse Orange worked their magic again to get another dramatic comeback victory — and hand the Gators their second loss in sudden victory overtime of the year.

Sarah Holden beat Mikey Meagher at the 2:02 mark of double overtime to get Syracuse to the NCAA Tournament final with a 14-13 win over Florida on Friday night. For the Gators, it was a bitter end to what seemed like a dream run to the highest heights the program has ever achieved.

Florida built a lead that stretched to seven goals at 11-4 and 12-5 in the second half, with Shannon Gilroy pumping in five goals and Brittney Dashiell scoring four to stake the Gators to a huge advantage. But Syracuse dominated the final 20 minutes of play, ripping off an 8-1 run and allowing just three Florida shots in the final 17:15 of regulation to send the game to overtime.

And while Florida got a stop and a draw control to allow itself a chance to score last in the second three-minute period of the first overtime, the Gators' heartbreak would only get more acute, its collapse more seismic: Gabi Wiegand scored with nine seconds left in that first overtime, giving the Gators a seemingly unassailable 14-13 lead, but her goal was disallowed after a stick check revealed illegal pocket depth, and the Gators were forced to head to the second overtime period.

Syracuse had given Florida its last loss of the season prior to the Gators' 15-game winning streak in sudden victory in March. On Friday, the Orange gave the precocious Gators another — and a painful memory to consider for months and months to come.

We'll have more on this game after a bit of time to reflect.

Andy Jackson Announces His Resignation as Florida Men's Tennis Coach - GatorZone.com

2012-05-25T21:59:59Z

Andy Jackson Announces His Resignation as Florida Men's Tennis Coach - GatorZone.com

Florida's now in the market for a new men's tennis coach. Jackson had been the Gators' head man since 2001.

Florida Lacrosse Vs. Syracuse: Final Four Open Thread

2012-05-25T21:25:09Z

Florida lacrosse has already put together the best season in program history with what the Gators have done 2012 to this point — the two wins over Northwestern, one on the road to win the American Lacrosse Conference for the second straight year and one to secure Florida's first ALC Tournament title, kind of secured that.

But with a 15-2 dismantling of Penn State last weekend, the Gators set their bar higher than ever before: They don't just want to appear in a Final Four; they want to win a national championship.

And they can.

Florida and Syracuse will take the field in moments for a 5:30 Eastern Final Four matchup in the 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Tournament, and if I used a lot of capital letters there, it's because these Gators being this good and this fast still seems surreal to me. The match will be available on ESPN3; you can follow along in the comments here, or on Twitter, as I'll have some live commentary going both places.

And, above all else: Go Gators.

Florida Football 2012 100 For 100, No. 99: Omar Hunter's Unfulfilled Promise

2012-05-25T20:37:54Z

Last year, we tried 50 For 50, and got halfway done before things cropped up. This year, Alligator Army is coming back with 100 For 100, with 100 articles in the 100 days leading up to the first Florida Gators football game of the 2012 season, and will run down storylines, profile players, examine history, and make some predictions, possibly all haphazardly. The only thing we can promise is that each day's entry will bring us all one step closer to "Herrrrrrrrre ... come the Gators!"

If you were following recruiting like a bloodhound in 2008, just after Florida's ultimately unsatisfying 2007 campaign — having the nation's most unstoppable offensive player and one of the country's worst secondaries at the same time will tend toward the unsatisfying — you will remember the story of Omar Hunter's recruitment. A Notre Dame decommitment, Hunter was the sort of hulking defensive tackle every coach wanted and envisioned as a space eater up front. Urban Meyer's hosannas were quintessential Urb-perbole: He called Hunter the Tim Tebow of that recruiting class.

In a way, he was right: Florida's 2008 recruiting class is littered with a bunch of names that had tremendous talent and made impacts off the field while falling to Earth (Will Hill and Janoris Jenkins were both in the same class), and Hunter's never quite gotten in gear as an impact player, tallying 71 total tackles, seven tackles for loss, and just one sack in his three years as a Gator.

Hunter will likely start at defensive tackle in the fall, as a senior, and he has the talent to make havoc happen. He's also a gregarious guy, sort of the fun counterpart to Dominique Easley's is-he-off-his-meds? lunacy and Sharrif Floyd's more stoic comportment, and could well be Florida's leader up front based on his age and experience alone. Whether he makes good on the promise many still think he has is another story.

And, of course, Tebow did have a hand in a couple of titles. Hunter has been part of one; another would be nice.

I LOL'd very hard at what Georgia decided to title its commemorative VHS tape (!!!) of the 1997...

2012-05-25T15:56:15Z

I LOL'd very hard at what Georgia decided to title its commemorative VHS tape (!!!) of the 1997 Florida-Georgia game. It's available on Amazon, if you, for some reason, want to buy it and try out your new sledgehammer or something.

Florida Baseball Falls To Vanderbilt, Faces Elimination In SEC Tournament

2012-05-25T14:45:04Z

Florida baseball had a golden opportunity to head into the weekend at the 2012 SEC Tournament with a chance to sweep the whole thing. And then — and tell me if this shocks you — the Gators' bats let them down, failing to produce in a 2-1 loss to Vanderbilt on Thursday.

The Gators, who took a 6-1 win over Auburn on Tuesday that earned them the right to face the red-hot Commodores, never led on Thursday, with their hitting failing to back up a strong outing from Hudson Randall. Randall threw 5.2 strong innings, allowing just three hits, but gave up two walks and a two-out, two-run triple by Riley Reynolds in the fourth inning that would be the difference in the game. Florida's bullpen continued its customary dominance, with five relievers combining to allow just two hits in 2.1 innings of relief, and four of them getting just one out apiece.

Those quiet bats are not a surprise for a Florida team that has struggled to put runs on the board for a month or two, but the silence in the middle of the order — Preston Tucker, Mike Zunino, and Brian Johnson combined to go 0-for-8, though Tucker walked once and Zunino twice, and Johnson personally left five men on base — was an unexpected failure.

Florida must now win an elimination game with SEC East champion South Carolina on Friday at 7:30 p.m. to have any chance of taking home another ring from Hoover. Johnson will get the start for the Gators.

Stipe Zunic, Two Others Qualify For NCAA's On First Day Of East Preliminary

2012-05-25T14:01:02Z

Since there aren't any pictures of the events from yesterday and I refuse to use an old one, we're going to have this column be in the style of The Grey Lady.

He's baaaaack!

Jeff Demps, who is running in his first meet since the Tom Jones Classic in April, came in second-place overall in the qualifying heat for the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.21 seconds. He'll run later today in the quarterfinals of the 100 meter dash with a trip to Des Moines, Iowa on the line.

While Demps didn't qualify for Des Moines on the first day -- though with the way qualifying was set up, it was nearly impossible -- there were three members of the Florida Gators track and field teams who did. Stipe Zunic (surprise!), Marquis Dendy and Florence Ngetich all qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships by virtue of their work yesterday.

Zunic won the javelin throw with a best distance of 74.06 meters, which he accomplished on his first throw. He did attempt his five other throws instead of taking a pass, but he was basically just going through the motions. Dendy also won his event, the long jump, with a best distance of 7.81 meters. Dendy did take a pass on his last three jumps once victory was certain.

Ngetich, who was the only women's team member to qualify for the Championships, qualified based on her sixth-place finish in the 10,000 meter run with a time of 34:26.88 seconds. She made the cut by around sixteen seconds, which in terms of track time is a long time.

There's more on how the Gators fared on the first day, along with a preview and viewing information for day-two after the jump.

Aside from Dendy, Ngetich and Zunic qualifying for the NCAA's, the Gators experienced mixed results at the East Preliminary round in Jacksonville, Florida.

In the women's long jump, neither Lorraine Graham and Daniela Griffin had a jump good enough to move on in qualifying. Though Graham's jump of 6.13 meters was close, it just wasn't good enough. Griffin's best jump of 5.90 meters was good for thirtieth-place.

Darshay Davis finished twentieth in the women's 100 meter dash with a time of 11.71 seconds. Her time was good enough to qualify for today's quarterfinal and like the situation that Demps is in, a trip to the NCAA's are on the line.

The Gators did have two women qualify in the 400 meter dash: Lanie Whittaker (second-place, 52.46 seconds) and Ebony Eutsey (twentieth-place, 53.70 seconds). Both of them will compete in today's quarterfinal event as well.

In the women's 1,500 meter run, only Cory McGee advanced to run another day. Her time of 4:24.31 seconds was good enough for a sixteenth-place finish. Agata Strausa, Mandy Perkins and Shelby Hayes all failed to make the cut. As for the women's 400 meter hurdles, they do say that two out of three ain't bad, right? Well, Ugonna Ndu won her heat with a time of 58.73 seconds and Amani Bryant finished second in hers with a time of 59.26 seconds. Both Ndu and Bryant will race later today.

On the men's side of things, both Tony McQuay and Hugh Graham Jr., qualified for the next round of the 400 meter dash with their times of 46.24 and 46.60 seconds respectively. McQuay won his heat, which was basically a walk-through and I still think that McQuay has a great chance of winning the NCAA Championship in this event.

In the last men's event, the 800 meter run, Tyler Cardillo was the lone Gator (out of two) to qualify for the quarterfinals later today. His time of 1:49.30 seconds was good enough for fourth overall. The other Gator who attempted to qualify in the 800 meter run was John Mitchell and his time of 1:51.19 seconds fell way short.

As promised, the schedule for today:

(Schedule courtesy of GatorZone)

As was the case with yesterday, the North Florida Ospreys athletic website is your home for meet central. They've also got a live video feed (click hi-res if you can, it's worth it) at the same location under the "webcast" option. Flash Results will once again handle the online timing as is customary.

If you can't follow the meet live or online, Alligator Army has your back. We'll have a full update as soon as possible (probably before the start of the next day) once the competition for the day is over.