By Andy Ross
Every team has one. Every school has that one other school that they refuse to cheer for. The one school that they cannot stand to watch win. The one school that they bust their butt every single day to beat. The one school that is circled on the schedule from the first day of practice. The one school where everyone brings their A-game. The one school where season records are thrown out the door, reputations are on the line, and bragging rights are at stake.
4. Texas-Auburn Men
Two of the most successful coaches in swimming history were the cream of the crop in the early 2000's in NCAA men's swimming. Eddie Reese led a star-studded Texas team while David Marsh coached a deep Auburn team. This rivalry did not get started until around 2000. At the time, Auburn were the defending NCAA champions, while Texas had finished third the year before.
Texas used their depth to claim the school's sixth NCAA title in men's swimming in 2000. After winning only three individual events, Troy Dumais in the springboard diving events and Matt Ulrickson in the 100 back, the Longhorns brought home the title with 538 points. The defending champion Tigers were second with 385.
Texas returned to the NCAA championships in 2001 in College Station with an even stronger team. With Troy Dumais defending both his titles, Nate Dusing winning the 200 back and 200 IM, and freshmen Ian Crocker and Brendan Hansen winning titles in the 100 fly and both breaststrokes, Texas accumulated the second most points in NCAA championship history. The Longhorns won with 597.5 points while Auburn did not have an event winner at NCAA's for the first time since 1994 and found themselves out of the top five in seventh place with 236 points.
In the 2001-2002 season, Auburn brought in a big freshman class with sprinters Ryan Wochomurka, Derek Gibb, and Matt Kidd, as well as diver Matt Bricker. Texas was eyeing a three-peat when they got to Athens, Georgia, for the 2002 NCAA Championships while Auburn was eyeing a return to the top five. Texas battled that weekend with Stanford, beating them by 11 points, while Auburn finished third with 365.5 points. With a majority of their points coming from freshmen (including four freshmen on the 400 free relay), Auburn was a team on the rise.
With the 2003 NCAAs in their rival's home pool in Austin, the Tigers were out to stop a 4-peat from happening. Auburn had a loaded freshmen class including future Olympic medallists Fred Bousquet, George Bovell, and Eric Shanteau. Auburn was picked by the CSCAA before the meet to finish second behind Texas. The Longhorns added a pretty fast freshman by the name of Aaron Peirsol. With wins by newbies Bovell in the 200 IM (NCAA record) and Bousquet in the 50 free, Auburn had a big lead after day one with 206 points, while Texas was fourth with 107.
Texas won four events on the second day, the 200 medley and 800 free relay, as well as Ian Crocker in the 100 fly and Brendan Hansen in the 100 breast. Despite these wins, the Tigers still led the Longhorns 449-282 after two days. With Texas originally planning on winning their fourth straight NCAA team title in their home pool, Auburn instead dropped the hammer on the competition and won their first championship since 1999. It was the depth of the Tigers that gave them the championship and the studs of the Longhorns could not compete as Auburn won the competition by almost 200 points.
The 2004 NCAA's in Long Island, N.Y., were the same story with Auburn dominating. One of the upsets of the weekend was in the 200 medley relay. Texas was in lane three and Auburn was in lane five. The Longhorns were the heavy favorites after winning the 400 medley relay in world record time (short course meters). But Auburn was looking for an upset. Doug Van Wie touched third for Auburn after the backstroke but beat out Peirsol by a tenth. Mark Gangloff out-split Hansen on the breaststroke and Auburn was in the lead. Crocker gave Texas the lead after out-splitting Bousquet by almost a second, but Derek Gibb (dubbed by Rowdy Gaines as the best relay swimmer in Auburn's history) passed freshman Garrett Weber-Gale and Auburn claimed the win by three tenths.
Hansen and Gangloff had a bit of a rivalry during the meet as well with Gangloff out-splitting Hansen in the 200 medley relay and only being .03 slower in the 400. Hansen however took the win in the 100 breast over Gangloff to win for the fourth year straight to become only the second man to do so.
Auburn had a huge lead going into the Saturday but it was all Texas on the third day in Long Island. Peirsol and Crocker won the 200 back and 100 free respectively in world record times. Hansen and Rainer Kendrick won the 200 breast and 200 fly as well. But the story at the end of the day was Auburn. They scored the most points in NCAA championship history with 634. Texas finished third with 374 behind second place Stanford. A good sound bite from that day was Crocker after the 100 free. When asked what was his plan for the race, he answered "Beat Auburn." (The Tigers had three finalists finishing third, fourth, and fifth).
After the 2004 NCAAs, Hansen and Crocker graduated, and Peirsol went professional. Auburn went on to win three more times and it things looked like the rivalry betweenthe Longhorns and Tigers would fade away. Until 2009.
David Marsh left Auburn after 2007 NCAA's and Richard Quick was his replacement. In December 2008, Quick stepped aside as head coach after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Brett Hawke took over, and by the time the 2009 NCAAs rolled around in College Station, Auburn was swimming inspired.
Even after winning the first three relays, and Kohlton Norys winning the 100 back, Auburn was down three points to Texas headed into the final day after the Horns won the 800 free relay. Auburn used their depth in the 200 back, 100 free, and 200 breast to overtake Texas by one point with three events to go. With three scorers to Texas' zero in the 200 fly, Auburn's lead of 33 points was almost unsurmountable heading into the 400 free relay. The Tigers' celebrated their eighth men's national title and Richard Quick became the winningest coach in NCAA swimming history.
Auburn's inspired swimming not only put away Texas, it motivated the Longhorns to return the favor at the 2010 NCAA's as Texas won its tenth title.
