By LARRY VAUGHT
Sophie Galloway was a four-time Gatorade Kentucky Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year who won eight Class 3A state championships, including the long jump, triple jump and 100-meter hurdles her senior season at Marshall County.
She dreamed of potentially being an Olympian in the heptathlon but her collegiate career had an unexpected bumpy start because after she committed to Tennessee the coach who recruited her left and she had to quickly make a decision to attend Arkansas. That didn’t work well and she transferred to Kentucky for the spring semester of her freshman year.
Despite battling a hamstring injury and fractured bone in her foot, she set a UK freshman record in the outdoor triple jump at 42 feet, 9 1/2 inches and qualified for the NCAA National Track and Field Championships with an eight-place finish at the NCAA East Prelims.
Galloway admits she thought that would be the start of a sensational career. She never imagined she would not be going back to the national championships again until this season where she will compete Saturday in the triple jump after placing sixth in the East Prelims with a leap of 41-1/4.
“I am thrilled to be going back. I know it means a lot to everyone and it is exciting but it is also a relief,” said Galloway. “It has been a really tough last two year. I felt I would never get out of my slump. I am really proud of the way I was able to stick with it.”
Her sophomore indoor season she was battling an injury when UK coaches decided to shut her down hoping her Iliotibial (IT) injury would loosen on its own. The injury causes pain on the outside of the knee or hip and most commonly occurs from overuse or an injury. The IT band is a strong band of tissue that starts at the hip and runs along the outer thigh that can tear. The band works with your thigh muscles to provide stability to the outside of the knee during movement.
“It got to be August, the injury was no different and I had surgery. But I still dealt with the issue my entire junior year, too,” Galloway said.
Now she’ll end her collegiate career in Eugene, Ore., in the NCAA Championships and plans to make sure she savors the experience.
“The first time I went I thought I had been on stages that big and places just as large like Nike Nationals until I got there and realized I was a freshman, age 19 and not as in shape as these other people,” Galloway said. “To be honest, I sucked when I got there. I blew it. I was so nervous. I had never felt so unprepared for something in my life and most of it was my own doing.
“Now I know I am not going to win. God would have to force me to jump 47 feet for that to happen. I think I need to be proud I went there. It is only my second outdoor season and I deserve to be there again and I have to remember that. I have to be not just proud and happy to be there but I have to understand that I worked so hard the last four years to get here.”
Galloway has learned difficult lessons the last four years she’ll never forget. She says she is a lot smarter and lot less egotistical than when she left high school.
“I was humbled so many times (in college). Out of high school I had so much pride. Everywhere I went I would get a PR (personal record) or jump a huge number and rank No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation. Success just happened and I got to college and just expected it to keep happening,” Galloway said.
“I have trained as an Olympian since eighth grade with my coach out of Nashville. I expected a 19-6 long jump in high school to transition to 21 in college and a 42-foot triple jump to be 45 or 46 in college. When it didn’t happen and I was not making finals and was hurt all the time even when I was giving everything, it was so hard. I have learned an immense amount about myself and a lot about the sport.”
Former Kentucky guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a historic season for the Oklahoma City Thunder to get his team into the NBA Finals where he has a chance to add even more to his legacy.
One of Gilgeous-Alexander’s biggest supporters for years has been Canadian Steve Nash, a two-time NBA MVP and eight-time all-star player as well as a NBA coach. Nash ranks as one of the top players in NBA history in career 3-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists and assists per game. In 2018, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Gilgeous-Alexander admits it would be “amazing” to win a NBA championship like Nash did.
“Steve obviously is a pioneer for Canadian basketball. He started the whole thing, I guess you can say. From the way he plays, to the way he carries himself, to his approach to the game, like, I learned so much from Steve being a 17-year-old kid in two weeks of time that helped me get here,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
“The things he’s done with Canada basketball as a whole and just pushing the culture forward is just amazing. To win a title on top of everything that happened this year would be special.
“I said this so many times, I don’t play for the individual stuff, I don’t play for anything else besides winning. I never have in my whole life. When I was nine-years-old I played to win an OBA championship. When I was 20 years old, I played to win the SEC championship. Now I’m 26, I want to win the NBA championship. It’s always about winning for me.
Nick Mingione was not ready for the 2025 season to be over when Kentucky blew a five-run lead in the eighth inning to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament but it didn’t take him long to make it clear he was already excited about the 2026 season with young players like freshmen Tyler Bell, Hudson Brown, Nate Harris and Ryan Schwartz returning.
“Unfortunately with the transfer portal we have already started having meetings with players (about next year). We have been forced to prepare for next year,” Mingione said after the season-ending 13-12 loss to West Virginia.
“I’m really excited about next year’s team. I think if guys continue to grow and develop and we bring all of this back. Depending on what happens with the draft, if you told me we were a preseason Top 10 team in the country, I could believe it. That’s how highly I think about the guys we have coming back offensively. I really believe, depending on how all of this works with the portal, we have a chance to be special next year.”
Junior second baseman Luke Lawrence hit .306. Bell, the starting shortstop, finished the season with a .296 batting average and was second on the team with 10 homers. Schwartz hit .317 and knocked in 15 runs in 23 games. Brown hit .265 with three homers in 43 games.
Junior Carson Hansen became the team’s starting center fielder in the second half of the season and hit .283 with seven home runs. Sophomore Kyuss Gargett hit .266 and stole eight bases.
Freshman Nate Harris had an outstanding first season for the Cats. He was the Friday night starter for the back half of the season and went 5-2 with a 4.70 ERA. Harris was the winning pitcher in UK’s NCAA Regional win over No. 11 Clemson.
“Look at what Nate Harris did. Look at Ben Cleaver,” Mingione said. “And we’ve got a couple of other guys that as they continue to progress and get back, there’s a really strong foundation.”
Sophomore Ben Cleaver, a southpaw, became the staff ace and went 6-3 with a 3.25 ERA. He struck out 92 batters in 83 innings. Harris went 5-2 with a 4.70 ERA and was the winning pitcher in UK’s NCAA Regional win over No. 11 Clemson.
Hall of Fame college basketball analyst Dick Vitale recently ranked his top 12 teams for the 2025-26 season and he put Kentucky 11th.
“Mark Pope reloads again, folks. Otega Oweh and Brandon Garrison will be looking to lead an incredible group of transfers, including Jayden Quaintance, Jaland Lowe, and Mouhamed Dioubate. The Wildcats are roaring loud in Lexington,” Vitale posted on ESPN.com.
However, Vitale’s preseason pick to win the Southeastern Conference is Florida, the defending national champion that lost to UK last season to open SEC play. He has the Gators ranked No. 3 behind Purdue and Houston.
Vitale is not the only one high on the Gators. College basketball analyst CJ Moore of The Athletic put Florida no. 5 in his preseason top 25 poll. He has UK ninth and Auburn 10th.
Moore found a lot to like about Florida coach Todd Golden’s team coming off a national championship season.
Florida’s frontcourt, featuring Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, was highlighted as a potential matchup nightmare. Also, the Gators added two major transfers in guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee.
Head coach Todd Golden’s ability to reload after a national championship run was also commended. Moore emphasized the Gators’ up-tempo offensive style and potential for further growth from players like Haugh and Condon as central to Florida’s championship hopes.
The Gators are the highest-ranked SEC program in the rankings, ahead of teams like the Kentucky Wildcats (No. 9) and Auburn Tigers (No. 10). Moore likes Florida’s “positional size and elite paint protection” going into the season.
“Florida could play a giant lineup that features Thomas Haugh (6-9), Alex Condon (6-11) and Rueben Chinyelu (6-10) up front. Those three played together only three possessions last season, per CBB Analytics, but it’ll be hard to justify bringing one of them off the bench, considering Haugh’s performance in the NCAA Tournament and the inexperience of the other wing options,” Moore wrote. “That big lineup could also help mask some defensive limitations of Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee.
“Florida’s up-tempo style should help Fland prove he can be a more efficient player than he was under John Calipari. The Gators will contend for another title if Fland and Lee are productive and if Haugh and Condon continue to gain confidence in their playmaking and scoring abilities.”
Quote of the Week: “Kentucky’s always home for me. There’s always love. That’s the school I went to, the jersey I put on. They gave me the opportunity to reach one of my goals and dreams in life to play college basketball, and play on one of the biggest levels for one of the best schools in the country, and a good opportunity to go to the league. So yeah, I’m definitely coming back,” former UK basketball star John Wall talking about his UK roots on ESPN Radio.
Quote of the Week 2: “The program means the world to me. I have been committed since 2018. It taught me to be the best teammate I can be. It has made me a better person. This guy (UK coach Nick Mingione), I respect more than anybody I know. Super thankful he gave me a shot and I was able to represent this university,” senior pitcher Evan Byers after UK’s season-ending loss.
Quote of the Week 3: “A good locker room is a good locker room. Sometimes it doesn’t meet that standard and it could be fractured and splintered very easily. We’re much more intentional and force-feeding that. Having the right guys helps that. That’s what gives me excitement about what we’re doing right now,” coach Mark Stoops on resetting the UK football culture this year.