Longhorns Win Southwest Collegiate Plunge

Texas captured seven of eight events to finish off its victory Saturday at the Southwest Collegiate Plunge, a four-team championship-style meet featuring Texas A&M, Missouri and SMU.  The Longhorns claimed the event with 872 points after leading with 459 points after Friday’s opening session.
              
Texas opened day two with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, as freshman Cole Cragin, junior Scott Spann, senior Ricky Berens and sophomore Jimmy Feigen finished in 1 minute, 30.81 seconds.  Cragin led off in 22.98 on the backstroke leg before Spann split 25.55 on the breaststroke.  Berens picked up the butterfly in 21.89 before Feigen anchored in 20.39.  
               
Sophomore Jackson Wilcox led UT in the 200 freestyle by taking second in 1:39.98.  Senior Peter Jameson took fourth in 1:42.00.  Junior Bryan Collins took second in the “B” final in 1:42.28, and junior Jim Robertson took fourth in 1:44.12.  Sophomore Eric Friedland led a one-two Texas finish in the 200 breaststroke in 2:03.51, and freshman Nick D’Innocenzo followed in second at 2:05.65.  Spann took the “B” final in 2:03.39, and senior Dan Nyaradi took second in 2:09.23.
               
Sophomore Drew Livingston captured the three-meter diving event with 356.32 points, and junior Matt Cooper took third with 343.50 points.  Junior Matt Cardell totaled 352.95 points in an exhibition performance.  Feigen claimed the 50 freestyle in 20.62, and senior Ben Van Roekel took fourth in 21.00.  Freshman Dax Hill won the “B” final in 21.42, and senior Peter Jameson placed fourth in 21.60.  
               
Berens led the Horns in the 100 backstroke by taking first in 48.71.  Cragin, the national high school record holder in the event, took third in 49.16.  Freshman Austin Surhoff claimed the “B” final in 50.75, and senior Alan Maher took third in 51.99.  Sophomore Neil Caskey led the Texas contingent in the 200 butterfly, as he took first in 1:50.78.  Wilcox placed fourth in 1:52.76.  D’Innocenzo captured the “B” final in 1:54.79.  Texas closed the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay, as Hill, Berens, Van Roekel and Jameson finished in 3:03.07.    
               
The Longhorns host their home opener on Friday, Oct. 30 against Indiana.  The meet will begin at 3 p.m. Central at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center following the first session of the Texas women’s meet against Indiana and Michigan.



Texas A&M junior Balazs Makany’s 200-yard freestyle victory highlighted A&M’s second-day action and helped the Aggies to a second-place team finish at the inaugural Southwest Collegiate Plunge on Saturday at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium.
           
Makany, a two-time Hungarian Olympian, out-dueled Texas’ Jackson Wilcox down the stretch and emerged victorious, 1:39.95 to 1:39.98 in the 200 free for the Aggies’ lone victory of the two-day event. The Aggies grabbed runner-up finishes in both relays and two individuals posted silver medal finishes to boost A&M’s cause on Saturday.
           
“I’m very pleased with the way we stepped up on the blocks and raced today,” Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. “It was a continuation of the good swimming that we started on the first day. Our team is so much further ahead of where we were at this time last year. I think the guys have done a great job of adapting to the workload that we’re asking them to do. We grew as a team this weekend, but we’ve got to find a way to keep getting better because we still have a long way to go.”
           
The Aggie foursome of senior Nikita Denisyako, senior Nathan Lavery, junior Boris Loncaric and senior Casey Strange opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:31.15.
           
Denisyako, who was the runner-up in the 200 back on Friday, placed second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 48.81.
           
True freshman Omar Enriquez continued his strong A&M debut with his second second-place finish of the meet with a runner-up placing in the 200 butterfly in a time of 1:51.40.
           
The Aggies closed the meet with a runner-up finish in the 400 freestyle relay when the foursome of Makany, Strange, true freshman John Dalton and Loncaric hit the wall in 3:05.29.


Day One:

Texas tallied victories in seven of nine events Friday evening and assumed the lead in the team standings after day one of the Southwest Collegiate Plunge, a four-team meet featuring UT, Texas A&M, Missouri and SMU.
               
Texas leads after day one with 459 points, and Texas A&M sits in second with 380 points.  Missouri is in third with 342 points, and SMU sits in fourth place with 327 points.  
               
The Horns opened the meet with a win in the 400-yard medley relay, as freshman Cole Cragin, junior Scott Spann, senior Ricky Berens and sophomore Jimmy Feigen finished in 3 minutes, 20.04 seconds.   Sophomore Jackson Wilcox, an All-American in the 500 freestyle, added a victory in that event in 4:29.47. 

SMU’s Ed Downes picked up a win in the 200 IM before Texas added on another first-place finish in the 100 freestyle, where Feigen was victorious in 45.08.  Feigen took second in the 100 freestyle at the 2009 NCAA Championships last March.  Sophomore Drew Livingston, the defending NCAA champion in the one-meter diving event, was victorious in the event Friday evening with 383.47 points.  Junior Matt Cooper took second with 352.72 points. 

Berens chipped in another Longhorns victory in the 100 butterfly, where he clocked 48.35, just off of the NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 48.34.  Missouri’s Jan Konarzewski took the 200 backstroke before Texas’ Spann, competing in his first collegiate meet since last October, took the 100 breaststroke in 56.90.  Texas capped the evening with a win in the 200 freestyle relay, as Feigen, and seniors Ben Van Roekel, Peter Jameson and Berens finished in 1:22.42.



The Texas A&M men’s swimming and diving team stands in second place after the first day of the Southwest Collegiate Plunge on Friday at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium. The competition resumes on Saturday at 11 a.m.
          
The Aggies scored 380 points on Friday and trail first-day leader Texas, who posted 459 points. Missouri stands in third place with 362 points, while host SMU scored 327 points.
           
“It was a good first day for us,” Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. “We swam really well for this time of the season. All four of the teams are training really hard at this point of the season. I think our upperclassmen have done a great job of adapting to the workload and finding a way to swim fast. You could tell that right out of the block.”
           
The Aggies posted runner-up finishes in five of the eight events on Friday.  The 400-yard medley relay of senior Nikita Denisyako, sophomore Amini Fonua, junior Boris Loncaric and junior Balazs Makany hit the wall in 3:21.28 to finish just behind Texas.
           
Freshman Omar Enriquez went toe to toe with Texas’ Jackson Wilcox in the 500 freestyle and finished just 1.39 seconds behind for the runner-up finish.
           
Loncaric, an All-American in the butterfly last season, placed second in the 100 fly to Texas Olympian Ricky Berens with a time of 50.21. 
           
Denisyako took second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:48.48, and Snowden added a runner-up finish in the 100 breast with a time of 57.03.