{"id":302899,"date":"2026-06-10T18:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302899\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:39:08","slug":"track-coach-holloway-aims-to-extend-floridas-title-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302899\/","title":{"rendered":"Track coach Holloway aims to extend Florida’s title streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014\u00a0Mike Holloway<\/a> had come agonizingly close before.<\/p>\n

This time,\u00a0Florida\u2019s iconic track and field coach finally delivered perfection.<\/p>\n

The moment the bowling ball left his hand, Holloway knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfway down the lane, I thought it was a strike \u2014 and it was,\u201d he told the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Three consecutive strikes to close the game completed a long-awaited\u00a0300, bowling\u2019s gold standard. Holloway even has a ring emblazoned with \u201c300\u201d to commemorate one of his favorite athletic accomplishments away from the track.<\/p>\n

At Florida, though, perfection has looked different.<\/p>\n

For more than two decades, the man best know as \u201cMouse\u201d has built one of the most successful programs in college sports, piling up championships with a consistency<\/a> few coaches in any sport can match.<\/p>\n

The latest SEC title was the 20th of Holloway\u2019s career<\/a>. His program entered this week at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with 14 national titles in the trophy case and realistic chances at adding Nos. 15 and 16.<\/p>\n

Holloway especially likes the outlook for a women\u2019s team that has spent years operating in the shadows of the powerhouse men\u2019s program, winners of seven national outdoor titles \u2014 including in 2022 when the women also won.<\/p>\n

Last month, Gators rolled to the SEC title by 20 \u00bd points over Alabama to sweep the conference cross country, indoor and outdoor championships. It marked the women\u2019s first triple crown since the 1996-97 season under the late Tom Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women have been doing this for a while,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been because of the ultra success of the men\u2019s program. People say, \u2018What\u2019s wrong with your women\u2019s team?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018There\u2019s nothing wrong with the women; they just happen to be on the same campus with the best team in the last two decades, that\u2019s all.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just that the shine is on them now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spotlight rarely stays away from Holloway for long.<\/p>\n

Everything at James G. Pressly Stadium\/Percy Beard Track<\/a> tends to orbit around the program\u2019s 67-year-old coach, whose ability to identify talent, build culture and manage personalities has been the foundations of Florida\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\"FloridaFlorida track and field coach Mike Holloway addresses his athletes during the Pepsi Relays on April 4 at Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville. (Rachel Rusch \/ UF’s University Athletics Association Communications)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe understands people,\u201d record-setting discus throw Alidda van Daalen told the Sentinel. \u201cBefore he recruits with them, he just can see if it\u2019s a fit for the team or not, or if he likes their personality. You can be the greatest athlete to be stepping foot in Florida, but if he doesn\u2019t like your attitude, you\u2019re not coming here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect that from him, because that keeps a very good balance in our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holloway\u2019s impact resonates throughout the athletic department.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just really driven, has an incredible work ethic and he never makes excuses,\u201d athletic director Scottt Stricklin told the Sentinel. \u201cWhatever he has to work with, he\u2019s like, it\u2019s our job to figure it out now. He\u2019s got a kind of a can-do attitude, and that leads to a lot of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holloway\u2019s ability to strike the right balance invariably shows during championship season.<\/p>\n

Florida has produced Olympic champions\u00a0Grant Holloway,<\/a> Kerron Clement, Christian Taylor and Tony McQuay under his watch. More recently, distance runner Parker Valby <\/a>recently rewrote the collegiate record books, while van Daalen continues to push the boundaries in the discus.<\/p>\n

Her throw of 218 feet, 10 inches set an SEC Championship meet record, and her toss of 227-5 at the East Preliminary on May 30 is the longest throw ever recorded at an NCAA-sanctioned event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what we do,\u201d Mike Holloway said. \u201cThis is kind of the Florida way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet some of his best coaching has come without transcendent stars.<\/p>\n

The 2024 men\u2019s team edged Auburn 41-40 for the national championship by winning on the margins. Ten different athletes carved out points, ranging from a runner-up finish to an eighth-place showing worth a single point \u2014 ultimately the difference between first and second.<\/p>\n

The victory was another chapter in a remarkable run of success.<\/p>\n

Florida as a whole has won at least one national team championship since the men\u2019s indoor track and field title in 2010, a streak that now stretches through the men\u2019s basketball title in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ten different men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs have claimed national championships during that span. Track and field stood alone as the university\u2019s sole title winner during six separate years: 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

As the NCAA Championships begin, Stricklin and Gator Nation know exactly where to place their faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Mouse we trust,\u201d Stricklin said.<\/p>\n

The confidence comes from years of results.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same self-assurancedness Holloway eventually developed as a bowler after taking up the sport in 2012 when fellow coaches invited him to Ally Gatorz Bowling Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joined the league, and I wasn\u2019t very good,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

True to form, Holloway, a former hurdler and recreational basketball player, went to work. He raised his average from 150 to more than 200. A decade earler, Holloway was on pace for a perfect game when he reached the 11th frame, finishing with a 289.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed my mark by about that much\u201d he said, holding his thumb and forefinger centimeters apart. \u201cI left the wall pin as the head pin, which is really hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time was different.<\/p>\n

After burying the pocket twice to open the 10th frame, he arrived at the 12th free of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go, \u2018Hey, I can throw it in the gutter now. That\u2019s a new PB, it\u2019s 291,\u2019 \u201d Holloway said. \u201cThat helped me relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida fans can feel much the same this week.<\/p>\n

The Gators\u2019 championship streak is on the line, but it remains in the hands of a coach who has spent a career delivering when the pressure is greatest.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014\u00a0Mike Holloway had come agonizingly close before. This time,\u00a0Florida\u2019s iconic track and field coach finally delivered perfection.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,28,2530,30,29,2496,114,76046,110],"class_list":["post-302899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}