No. 1 Texas (5-1) won eight events and wiped out an early deficit en route to a hard-fought 158-142 victory over No. 3 Georgia Saturday afternoon at UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium. The Longhorns complete a road sweep of Southeastern Conference foes after handily defeating Auburn at its home pool on Thursday.
Georgia opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay, but Texas staved off UGA’s gains by taking second and third places in the relay. Sophomore Clark Smith, the nation’s second-ranked swimmer in the 1,000 freestyle, posted UT’s first win of the day and won that event in 9 minute, 0.73 seconds. Junior Sam Lewis added a fourth-place time of 9:05.04.
Georgia took the top-two slots in the 200 freestyle before UT sophomore Jack Conger followed by taking the 100 backstroke in 47.78. Senior Kip Darmody solidified a one-two Texas finish in 48.17.
Texas collected a boatload of points from its divers on both the one-meter and three-meter boards. The Longhorns took the top-three spots on both boards, and sophomore Mark Anderson led off with a win on one-meter with 398.25 points. Redshirt senior Will Chandler took second at 384.60 while junior Cory Bowersox placed third with 362.33 points.
Later on, Texas put some distance between itself and Georgia in the team standings by way of its one-two-three finish on the three-meter board, where Chandler was victorious with an impressive total of 444.68 points. Anderson took second at 424.13 while Bowersox claimed third place at 397.43.
Freshman Brett Ringgold posted a key win in the 100 freestyle after Georgia had claimed the other sprint event, the 50 freestyle. The Keller, Texas, native took the 100 in 43.78 while senior Clay Youngquist placed fourth at 44.47.
Conger finished off his sweep of the backstroke events with a top time of 1:43.34 in event’s 200-yard race. Last month at the Texas Invitational, Conger joined Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol as the only Longhorns to eclipse the 1:40 mark in the event.
Georgia collected substantial points in the 200 breaststroke, but Texas answered by going first, third and fourth in the 500 freestyle, typically a Georgia stronghold. Smith trailed UGA’s Matias Koski heading into the final 50 yards but ran down the Bulldogs’ All-American and won by less than two-tenths of a second. Smith was victorious in 4:19.94, and Lewis took third in 4:23.34. Freshman Jonathan Roberts added two points by placing fourth at 4:23.44.
Texas continued its late surge with its one-two finish in the 100 butterfly, where Schooling claimed the victory in 46.61. Senior Tripp Cooper logged a key second-place finish after chasing down UGA’s Tynan Stewart in 47.48.
Georgia took first and second in the 400 IM, but with 152 points heading into the final event, Texas had clinched the team victory. UT disqualified its “A” entry in the 400 freestyle relay but took second and third places to finish off the win with 158 points.
Texas resumes dual-meet competition in three weeks when it hosts Arizona and SMU.
Georgia's swimming and diving teams split with Texas on Saturday at Gabrielsen Natatorium.
The No. 2 Lady Bulldogs (9-0) fought off No. 6 Texas 163.5-136.5 and extended their UGA all-sports record with their 93rd consecutive home victory dating back to 1995. The No. 3 Bulldogs (6-2) dropped a 158-142 decision to the top-ranked Longhorns.
"That was a high-level meet, probably the best one in the country so far," Georgia coach Jack Bauerle said. "A Georgia-Texas meet brings out the best in both programs. I'm really, really pleased with how we did today. I am completely satisfied across the board."
Hali Flickinger won three events for the Lady Bulldogs for the second straight week. The reigning SEC Swimmer of the Week claimed the 200 backstroke in 1:53.71, the 200 butterfly in 1:55.46 and the 400 individual medley in 4:12.36.
The Lady Bulldogs' other winners were Maddie Locus in the 50 freestyle (22.80), Chantal Van Landeghem in the 100 freestyle (50.28), Jordan Mattern in the 200 freestyle (1:47.15), Amber McDermott in the 500 freestyle (4:46.08) and Lauren Harrington in the 100 butterfly (53.26).
Nicolas Fink swept the breaststroke races to pace the Bulldogs as he took the 100 in 53.58 and the 200 in 1:55.19.
Additional winners for the Bulldogs were Michael Trice in the 50 freestyle (19.83), Gunnar Bentz in the 200 freestyle (1:35.55), Ty Stewart in the 200 butterfly (1:44.09) and Chase Kalisz in the 400 individual medley (3:46.65).
The Bulldogs won the 200 medley relay as Taylor Dale, Fink, Stewart and Trice stopped the clock in 1:27.06. The 400 freestyle relay of Bentz, Matias Koski, Trice and Fink took first with a time of 2:56.19.
Georgia's teams will return to action Jan. 24 at Tennessee.
No. 6 Texas (6-2) won eight events and completed sweeps of the relays and diving events, but No. 2 Georgia (9-0) claimed a 163.5-136.5 win over the Longhorns’ Saturday at UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium.
Texas opened the meet by claiming the 200-yard medley relay, as sophomore Tasija Karosas, senior Gretchen Jaques and freshmen Mimi Schneider and Rebecca Millard took the win in 1 minute, 39.93 seconds.
Senior Kaitlin Pawlowicz defeated the nation’s top-ranked swimmer in the 1,000 freestyle, Georgia’s Amber McDermott, and handily won the event in 9:43.82. Georgia claimed the lead in the next event as the Bulldogs’ Jordan Mattern out-touched Madisyn Cox in the 200 freestyle by one one-hundredth of a second. Cox settled for second at 1:47.16.
Senior Sarah Denninghoff led a one-two Texas finish in the 100 backstroke and took the win in 53.50, an impressive January time coming out of rigorous holiday training. Karosas followed in second at 53.79. Jaques posted the first of two wins on the day in the 100 breaststroke at 1:00.33. The Californian posted the nation’s second-fastest time in the event last month when she cleared 59 seconds at the Texas Invitational.
Senior Emma Ivory-Ganja registered the first of two Texas diving wins on the day with her total of 364.05 points on the three-meter board. Junior Meghan Houston (342.45), sophomore Murphy Bromberg (287.85) and junior Kristina Hoffmann (275.10) rounded out a one-two-three-four Texas finish. The Longhorns also took four of the top-five spots in the one-meter contest as Houston edged UGA’s Olivia Ball with 309.23 points. Ivory-Ganja took third with 302.85 points.
Jaques trailed at the 150-yard mark in the 200 breaststroke but out-split UGA’s Annie Zhu by over a second on the final 50 yards to win in 2:12.58, good for a NCAA “B” cut.
The Longhorns won the meet’s final event, the 400 freestyle relay, as Jaques, Denninghoff, Karosas and senior Kelsey LeNeave finished in 3:19.80.
Texas resumes dual-meet competition in three weeks when it hosts Arizona and SMU.
