Texas Men
No. 1 Texas made a clean sweep of the three events contested Wednesday evening on night one of the Big 12 Championships at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas assumed the lead in the team standings through day one with 117 points while TCU took second through the first session with 115 points. West Virginia sits in third with 43 points.
Texas opened the evening by claiming the 200-yard medley relay in 1 minute, 24.46 seconds, good for a NCAA automatic-qualifying cut, though the Horns had already earned an automatic cut in December at the Texas Invitational. Senior Kip Darmody led off in 21.37 while junior John Murray picked up the breaststroke leg in 24.38.
Freshman Joseph Schooling recorded what is believed to be among the fastest 50-yard butterfly splits of all time with his split of 19.66 seconds. Freshman Brett Ringgold anchored the relay in 19.05.
All-America senior Will Chandler captured the men’s one-meter diving crown with 441.50 points while All-America junior Cory Bowersox took second place with 403.45 points.
Texas closed out the first night of competition with an easy win and an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Freshman Jonathan Roberts teamed up with sophomore Jack Conger, senior Clay Youngquist and Schooling to finish in 6:15.98, well under the NCAA “A” cut of 6:22.81.
Conger opened the morning time trials by setting NCAA, American and U.S. Open records in the 200-yard butterfly. Video from the race is available here: http://www.texassports.com/news/2015/2/25/MSWIM_0225150658.aspx
The day two preliminary round at the Big 12 Championships gets underway Thursday at 10 a.m. Central.
Texas Women
No. 6 Texas claimed both relay events and assumed the lead in the team standings Wednesday evening on night one of the Big 12 Championships at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas leads the event with 80 points while Iowa State holds second place with 68 points. West Virginia sits in third with 62 points while TCU is in fourth with 58 points. Kansas rounds out the team standings with 32 points.
Texas opened the evening by winning the 200-yard medley relay, as sophomore Tasija Karosas, senior Gretchen Jaques, sophomore Brynne Wong and freshman Rebecca Millard finished in 1 minute, 37.42 seconds, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut. The relay marked the event’s eighth-fastest swim in school history.
The Longhorns closed the night with their win in the 800 freestyle relay, as sophomore Madisyn Cox, senior Kelsey LeNeave, Karosas and Millard finished in 7:07.04, just under the NCAA automatic-qualifying cut of 7:07.20.
TCU
The TCU men’s and women’s 200 medley relay teams rewrote the school record books on the first day of the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships in Austin.
After the first night of action, the men’s team sits in second-place, only two points behind first-place Texas. The women’s team is in fourth, only 10 points back of the second spot.
“I feel good about the position we are in right now after the first night of competition,” TCU head coach Richard Sybesma said. “I’m extremely happy to have two records on the first night.”
The women’s relay kicked off the night by clocking in to a time of 1:41.72 and finishing fourth. The team consisted of senior Ashley Alspaugh, freshmen Devin Newton and Emily Gibson, and sophomore Julia Grace Sanders. The previous record of 1:42.23 was set in 2013.
On the men’s side, the team of senior Adam Szilagyi, junior Ford Story, sophomore Garrett Hills and senior Josh Mangus posted a second-place finish at 1:27.52. It’s the second time this season the same record has fallen, when it was set at 1:28.09 on Nov. 21 at the Art Adamson Invitational.
Senior Ricky Bradley recorded a fourth-place finish in the men’s 1-meter finals with a mark of 302.85. It’s a season-best and the top mark in the event by a Horned Frog this season. Seniors Joseph Stegeman (255.65), who also set a season-high, and Curtis Muller (241.50) finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
