GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- It's never easy to single out and pare down the dozens upon dozens of outstanding individual displays of a Florida athletic season into one short list, but we try to do our best.
Here's our look back at some of their most memorable moments of 2025-26.
We'll do it again next year.
In the interim, have a great summer, Gators, and we'll see you back in August.
10) LIV-ING LARGE
Sophomore point guard Liv McGill's 697 points were a UF single-season record.
Yes, she transferred to Oklahoma State after the season and opted not to return following a coaching change in women's basketball, but that decision won't erase the numbers sophomore point guard Liv McGill put in the UF record book in following up a record-breaking freshman season with a first-team All-SEC campaign when the Minneapolis product finished second in the conference in scoring.
McGill averaged 22.5 points per game, finishing with a program single-season record of 697 points. She scored 30 or more on five occasions, equaling the most by any Gator. The 38-point outburst against Chattanooga on Nov. 6, 2025 marked the most points scored by a UF player in a home game.
One of the highest-usage players in all of college basketball, McGill also led the team assists (6.3) and steals (2.6) per game, and ranked second in rebounding (6.1), despite standing just 5-foot-9.
9) A FAR-FROM-UNEVEN PERFORMANCE
Riley McCusker captured the U.S. Championships uneven bars title as an elite gymnast and went on to close her collegiate career by claiming the NCAA crown in the same event.
McCusker, the senior participating in her final UF event, nailed her routine with a score of 9.9875 on bars during the semis, which represented the highest score awarded across all events — all gymnasts, all teams — during semifinal action.
She became the 12th Gator in program history to win a NCAA individual title, as well as sixth to do so on bars.
8) KING OF THE HILL
The midseason run Aiden King put together earned him the league's top pitching honor.
On April 3, the UF baseball team began a stretch of SEC series when it faced Ole Miss at home, No. 3 Georgia on the road, No. 13 Auburn and No. 7 Texas A&M at home, then No. 15 (and eventual NCAA national champion) Oklahoma on the road. Over that brutal five-week slate, sophomore ace Aiden King went 4-0 with five quality starts (at least six innings, fewer than three earned runs surrendered) and posted a 1.51 ERA across 35 2/3 innings. King was named NCAA Pitcher of the Month.
A couple weeks later, King was named SEC Pitcher of the Year.
King, the right-hander from Jacksonville, Florida, finished the '26 season with an 8-2 record, 3.21 ERA and just 19 walks. He was at his best in SEC play (6-1, 3.19) and became just the fourth in program history to garner league PoY honors — the first since Brady Singer in 2018 — and just the fourth underclassmen to do since the conference initiated the award in 2004.
7) BAUGH-LER
"The Jadan Baugh Game"
Who remembers what the Florida Gators star RB did to FSU to end the 2025 season?
There wasn't a lot about the 2025 football season to bring Florida fans to their feet, but the Gators did have sophomore tailback Jadan Baugh, who gave the team one of the greatest rushing seasons in program history.
And one of the greatest single games.
When UF took the field for its showdown against rival Florida State on Feb. 29, the Gators, with just three victories and no hope for a bowl, knew their season would end that night. Interim Coach Billy Gonzales knew it was his final game leading the program, as well, and decided he was going to go out feeding his 6-1, 228-pound beastly back.
When the final gun sound — and UF's 40-21 rout was in the books — Baugh had carried a whopping 38 times for 266 yards and a pair of touchdowns in what became known as "The Jadan Baugh Game." The attempts marked the most by a Florida back since Fred Taylor's toted 43 times in the 1998 Citrus Bowl against Penn State. The yards were the second-most in program history, behind Emmitt Smith's 316 in a homecoming game against New Mexico. The total gave Baugh 1,170 yards on the season, making him the first Gator to eclipse the 1,000-yard milestone since Kelvin Taylor in 2015.
Oh, and Baugh bypassed the transfer portal and opted to stick around and play his junior (and presumably) final season with Sumrall and the new staff.
6) TAKING IT THE DISTANCE
Freshman Kelvin Cheruiyott became the first Gator to win the SEC cross country title since 1983.
The field tried, but they could never shake Kelvin Cheruiyott.
In his first SEC Championships race, the freshman from Kenya hovered near the front of the pack for the first 5.5 kilometers, then surged to take the lead with about 500 meters to go and stayed there. Cheruiyott crossed the finish line at 23:08.26, giving the Gators their first SEC cross country men's champion — get this — in 42 years.
The last UF racer to step to the top of the podium was Keith Brantly in 1983. Back then, they ran five miles, rather than six kilometers. Cheruiyott also became the program's first first-team All-SEC honoree since 2015 and first All-Freshman Team selection since 2023. Unsurprisingly, Cheruiyott was named the SEC Cross Country Runner of the Year as well as the league's Freshman of the Year. He finished 14th at the NCAA Championships, capping one of the greatest rookie distance seasons in Florida history.
5) NOTHING BUT RED NUMBERS
Paula Francisco became the first SEC women's individual golf champion in a decade.
She entered Day 3 of the SEC Championships three strokes behind the leader, but Paula Francisco fired a bogey-free, 2-under par front nine to move to the top of the individual leader board at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
Two holes later, the junior from Madrid, Spain was in second, but a pair of birdies over the final two holes eventually netted a three-under round of 67 and brought UF its eighth women's conference champion in program history. The last to do so: Maria Torres in 2016.
Francisco shot all three of the SEC rounds under par, finishing with an eight-under score of 202, marking the third-lowest in the tournament's history.
It was one play, maybe 12 seconds worth of action, but the video went viral — while announcers Jimmy Dykes and Karl Ravech went nuts — and laid the groundwork for junior center Rueben Chinyelu's astounding season of individual accolades.
In defending not one but two Alabama guards, the 6-foot-10 1/2 Chinyelu moved like something out of a Michael Jackson video, harassing Lebaron Philon and Latrell Wrightsell into a 30-second shot violation that became a testament in microcosm to Chinyelu's dedication to that end of the floor. By the time UF's league championship season was over, Chinyelu had garnered both SEC and national defensive player of the year honors, becoming the first player in program history to do so. The first Gator in 50 years to average a double-double (10.9 points, 11.2 rebounds per game) was also the first to lead the SEC in rebounding since 1989, as well as the first to post at least three games with at least 20 rebounds in a season in 57 years.
His hardware wasn't exclusive to the hardwood, either. Chinyelu, working toward a double-major in biology and sociology, was named the 2026 SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, as well.
Call his season a double-double in excellence.
3) GOLD-WORTHY HURDLE UPSET
His freshman season didn't exactly open a lot of eyes. Vance Nilsson was part of relay teams that scored points at the SEC and NCAA meets, then improved on his times and had a third-place finish at the 2026 SEC outdoor.
Which made what happened in Eugene, Oregon, site of the NCAA championships, all the more astounding.
Nilsson, running in the far-outside Lane 9, got off to a great start and never let the field of favorites catch him on the way to a stunning victory in the 400-meter hurdles final with a collegiate-best time of 48.06, with meet favorite and SEC champion Cody Blackwood tripping over the 10th and final hurdle down the home stretch.
His win was the Gators' sixth in the 400 hurdles - which leads the nation's programs.
2) TITLE TOSSER
Discus diva Alida van Daalen became the most decorated thrower in UF women's track history.
At the SEC Outdoor Championships, senior Alida van Daalen uncorked a discus throw of 212 feet, 9 inches on her first attempt. The heave instantly put the Netherlands native in first place, but as if to further her point van Daalen passed on any passes and went 218-10 — more than six feet better — on her final attempt to capture a third consecutive conference title in the event.
There were more points to prove for the SEC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year (and one of the best ever to do it for the Gators).
The most decorated thrower in program history, van Daalen went to the NCAA championships and piled on the competition by winning UF's first national title in the discus event. Her winning mark was a meet-record of 216-6, but four of van Daalen's other five throws would have won the crown, as well. Amazing.
She was the Gators' lone gold-medalist at NCAAs, with her points leading the way to a second-place overall finish for the team. She exited her career with 10 All-America honors, five SEC titles and the one national championship in her swan-song meet.
1) LIENDO BOAT-RACES THE FIELD
They'll be playing a lot of "Oh Canada" on Josh Liendo's behalf at the 2028 Summer Olympics. He finished his career as one of four in NCAA history to win 15 event titles during his collegiate career (nine individual | 6 relays).
In 2018 Caeleb Dressel closed out a record-setting swimming career with one of the greatest seasons in NCAA history.
Well, a case can be made that Josh Liendo's 2026 season — and UF career — was every bit as spectacular.
Liendo, the senior from Toronto, was named Co-National Swimmer of the Year (to go with his second SEC Swimmer of the Year honor) after tallying a meet-high 60 points at the NCAA Championships by sweeping the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly events, plus pitching in on team-scoring relays, as the Gators placed second for their highest finish at NCAAs since 1985. His performance paired beautifully with that of freshman Ahmed Jaouadi, from Tunisia, who the NCAA and SEC champ in the 1,650 free and conference freshman of the year.
When the pool waves settled, Liendo finished his career with a hand in 15 national titles (nine individual and six relays) in his career, including four in the 100 fly (he won a silver medal in the event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris), becoming just the 13th athlete in the 99-year history of the NCAA Championships to win four consecutive championships in the same event.
Note: Dressel was the last to do it.
For the season, Liendo earned the maximum seven All-America honors to close his career with 26, which placed nicely alongside his second Academic All-America honor.
What an incredible run to headline another memorable Florida athletic seasons.
