Gator Greats: Top 10 Post-Collegiate Careers by Florida Track and Field Athletes

By Paul Hof-Mahoney

Totaling 14 men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor NCAA team titles and 102 NCAA champions, the Florida Gators have long been a powerhouse in the world of collegiate track and field. And it’s no surprise that numerous Gators have accomplished big things in the world of track and field after leaving Gainesville. The task of narrowing this team’s history down to only the 10 best post-UF track careers is arduous. to say the least. For the purposes of this list, accomplishments and accolades from their collegiate careers were not taken into account.

Honorable Mentions: The Future

There is a select group of athletes that were members of the 2022-23 teams that won three out four possible NCAA outdoor team championships who have not yet had the opportunity to build up their post-collegiate resumes, but certainly show vast potential.

Leading this pack is Jasmine Moore, a seven-time NCAA champion across the indoor and outdoor long jump and triple jump. Already one of the most impressive all-around jumpers in world history, Moore has competed at the past three major global championships. Her best results on the global stage came this year at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where she placed 10^th in the long jump and 11^th in the triple jump. After turning pro in July, Moore is poised to break out at the Paris Olympics next year without the strain of a full collegiate season.

Sprinter Joseph Fahnbulleh will look to continue to make a name for himself in an incredibly competitive global sprinting scene over the coming years. Fahnbulleh, the 2022 NCAA outdoor champion in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, already has an impressive global resume. Born in Minnesota but representing his parents’ native Liberia, Fahnbulleh has qualified for each of the past three global finals in the 200, placing fifth in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, fourth in 2022 and ninth in 2023.

Finally, 400-meter specialist Talitha Diggs is the only member of this group to already have a world title; she was a member of the United States team that took home gold in the 4×400-meter relay at the 2022 World Championships. Diggs also claimed the U.S. title in the individual 400 earlier that year, becoming the second collegiate woman  to win both an NCAA indoor and outdoor title in the same season she won a U.S. title.

10. Marquis Dendy (UF career: 2012-15)

The first Gator to win The Bowerman, the highest individual honor in collegiate track and field, Dendy has been a staple on the global long jump scene for nearly a decade.

He has found his most success indoors, claiming the World Indoor Championship title in 2016 and winning bronze medals in both 2018 and 2022. Unfortunately, Dendy has yet to find the same success outdoors, with his best finish coming in 2022 when he placed sixth at the World Championships. Perhaps his best chance at an outdoor podium would have come at the 2016 Rio Olympics, five months after his indoor world title, but he was forced to pull out due to a leg injury.

Dendy, now 30, still has plenty of opportunity to find that elusive podium, as he still qualified for the World Championship final this year and posted the fifth-longest jump of his career, with a mark of 8.34 meters in April.

9. Tony McQuay (2010-12)

After a decorated career in Gainesville, winning three NCAA individual titles, McQuay made his mark on the professional circuit as an integral part of the United States 4×400 relay team in the mid-2010s. McQuay’s first international success came at the 2012 London Olympics, only two months after winning gold in both the 400 and 4×400 relay at the NCAA Championships, where he ran a split of 43.4 seconds on the third leg en route to the U.S. claiming silver in the 4×400 relay.

McQuay medaled at each of the next four global championships in this event, winning the Olympic title in 2016, World Championship titles in both 2013 and 2015, and a World Championship silver medal in 2017. He also added an individual World Championship silver medal to his trophy case in 2013, finishing runner-up to countryman LaShawn Merritt in the 400.

8. Novlene Williams-Mills (2003-04)

Despite never medaling individually at the collegiate level, Williams-Mills was a critical part of a the Jamaican 4×400 relay team that medaled at nine of 11 major global championships from 2004-17. At the Olympics, she racked up three silver medals and one bronze, to go along with a 2015 World Championship title and four World Championship silver medals. Williams-Mills also earned a bronze medal in the individual 400 at the 2007 World Championships.

While her medal count certainly stands out, the most impressive aspect of her career was the strength she showed following a 2012 breast cancer diagnosis. The diagnosis came just before the Olympics that year, and yet she still found a way to help get her country onto the podium in London. After two operations that offseason, she came back to win another Olympic silver in 2016 and her World Championship title in 2015.

7. Bernard Williams (2000)

Claiming NCAA titles in the 100 and 4×100 to go with a bronze in the 200 in his only season in Gainesville, Williams was one of the world’s premier sprinters and athletics’ biggest personalities in the early 2000s. Williams burst onto the global stage at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a member of the U.S. 4×100-meter relay team that won gold.

At the next year’s World Championships, Williams won a silver medal in the 100 and originally won gold once again the 4×100 relay, but the result was later disqualified due to teammate Tim Montgomery’s doping violations. At the 2003 World Championships, a clean U.S. team featuring Williams would win gold. Williams won his second and final individual medal in the 200 at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he placed second.

6. Anna Hall (2022)

At only 22 years old, Hall is the youngest athlete to make this list by a significant margin. In only a year-and-a-half on the professional circuit, she has already built a resume that most athletes are unable to approach in 10 years. After dominating at the collegiate level in both the heptathlon and the 400-meter hurdles, Hall won the bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2022 World Championships, the first medal by a U.S. athlete at the World Championships in the event since 2001.

That season would only be a glimpse of what was to come in 2023, however, as Hall began her first full season as a professional by scoring 5004 points in the indoor pentathlon, placing her fourth on the all-time list and setting a new North American, Central American and Caribbean record in the process. Outdoors, Hall scored 6988 points in Götzis, Austria, placing her fifth on the all-time list, and later won the silver medal at the 2023 World Championships.

5. Dennis Mitchell (1986-89)

The oldest athlete and the only member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame on this list, Mitchell was one of the most consistent sprinters of the early ‘90s. In the 100, he won bronze medals at each of the 1991 World Championships, 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1993 World Championships. He also was a member of the U.S. 4×100 relay team that won gold medals at each of those championships, and a silver medal at 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Between 1991 and 1993, relay teams that Mitchell was a part of set the world record in the event three times, once equaling their own record of 37.40 seconds. As impressive as Mitchell’s career on the track was, his coaching career after he hung up the spikes may be more remarkable.

Based in Monteverde, Florida, he has coached sprinters Sha’Carri Richardson, Justin Gatlin, Aaron Brown and Twanisha Terry to world championships.

4. Will Claye (2011)

One of the most prolific triple jumpers of all time, Claye has produced one of the most impressive resumes ever seen by a jumper. Claye, who spent one season in Gainesville after transferring from Oklahoma prior to his junior year, placed first and second in triple and long jump respectively at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships, and second and third respectively outdoors.

Twice an indoor world champion, Claye has also earned two World Championship silver medals and two World Championship bronze medals outdoors, to go along with a pair of Olympic silver medals in 2012 and 2016. Claye’s personal best of 18.14 meters from June 2019 places him third on the all-time list. If those accolades were not reason enough to warrant his placement on this list, Claye not only medaled in the triple jump at the 2012 London Olympics, but he won a bronze medal in the long jump as well.

In doing so, he became the first athlete in 76 years to medal in both events at the same Olympics.

3. Kerron Clement (2004-05)

Following a collegiate career where he claimed three individual NCAA titles, including a then-world record in the indoor 400, Clement spent nearly a decade at the top of the 400 hurdles world. A World Champion in both 2007 and 2009, Clement also claimed an Olympic title in 2016 and an Olympic silver medal in 2008. The Trinidadian-born Clement managed to secure a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships as well, at what would be his last major global championship.

Clement’s personal best of 47.24 seconds currently ranks him 12^th on the all-time list over the 400 hurdles. In addition to his individual success, Clement was an integral part of the U.S. 4×400 relay team throughout his career, adding another two World Championship gold medals and an Olympic gold medal to his trophy case.

2. Grant Holloway (2017-19)

Holloway’s collegiate career was, simply put, one of the best the NCAA has ever seen. Competing in hurdles, sprints, jumps and relays, he totaled eight NCAA championships and capped it off with the 2019 Bowerman award. That was far from the end of Holloway’s 2019 campaign, however, as he would win his first World Championship title that October in the 110-meter hurdles. Since then, he has won two more World Championship gold medals — recording a three-peat in the 110 in August in Budapest, Hungary —  a World Indoor Championship title, and an Olympic silver medal. His 2021 personal best of 12.81 seconds makes him the second-fastest man ever over distance, falling only .01 seconds behind Aries Merritt.

In the indoor 60-meter hurdles, he is unquestionably the greatest ever over the distance. His 7.29-second clocking from 2021 sits as the world record, and he has posted eight of the 11 fastest times ever. The last time Holloway lost a 60m hurdles race? March 16, 2014. When he was 16 years old. The only blemish on Holloway’s record is a runner-up finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and he will be looking to redeem himself next year in Paris.

At only 25 years old, Holloway could certainly find himself at the top of this list in a future edition. However, that spot still belongs to the final athlete on this list.

1. Christian Taylor (2009-11)

As one of the most dominant figures in athletics in the 2010s, Christian Taylor has cemented his place as one of the two greatest triple jumpers in history. His three NCAA titles as a collegian proved to be merely a glimpse of the career that lay ahead of him. A four-time world champion and two-time Olympic champion, he has more combined global titles than any man in the event’s history. With the second-farthest jump in history at 18.21 meters and four of the 14 jumps all-time over 18 meters, he certainly has the marks to go with the medals.

The only thing missing from his resume is a World Indoor Championship title. This absence can be chalked up to the fact that he only competed at the meet once, in 2012, placing second behind his college teammate Claye. A ruptured Achilles in early 2021 has unfortunately derailed his last three seasons, but a healthy Taylor was one of the greatest and most consistent athletes the world has seen. One last example of Taylor’s excellence: in 2014, with no Olympics or World Championships that year, he decided to dabble in the 400m, an event he occasionally ran in college.

With an April clocking of 45.17 seconds, Taylor ranked 35^th in the world in the event that year, even winning a gold medal with the U.S. team at the 2014 IAAF World Relays.

Paul Hof-Mahoney is a journalism student at the University of Florida.