Texas picked up a big win against N.C. State on Friday.
Texas Press Release
No. 7 Texas claimed 11 of 16 events and improved to 6-0 by way of a 166.5-127.5 victory over No. 4 N.C. State Friday evening at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
The Horns opened the meet the same way they did in Thursday’s contest against Texas A&M, with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. Seniors Tasija Karosas, Madisyn Cox and Brynne Wong and junior Rebecca Millard teamed up to win in 1:38.35.
Sophomore Joanna Evans returned after a short layoff from the 1,000 freestyle to win the 200 freestyle from lane one in 1:47.66, good for an NCAA “B” cut. Her classmate Remedy Rule took second at 1:47.93. Karosas won the 100 backstroke for the second time in as many days and was victorious in 53.21.
Cox returned to lead a one-two Texas finish in the 100 breaststroke and claimed the win at 1:00.39. All-America sophomore Olivia Anderson took second at 1:00.78. Sophomore Lauren Case took on one of her strongest events, the 200 butterfly, and came away with the win in 1:59.42, just under the NCAA “B” cut of 1:59.59. Millard tied with N.C. State’s Kylee Perry for the win in the 50 freestyle at 22.55 but claimed the 100 freestyle for herself at 48.78.
Karosas finished off a sweep of the backstroke events by winning at 200 yards in 1:55.45. Cox followed suit and completed a Longhorns sweep of the breaststroke events with her victory at 200 yards in 2:10.40.
Sophomore Meghan O’Brien led a one-two-three Texas showing atop the final one-meter diving standings with 311.25 points. Freshman Alison Gibson took second with 289.28 points while sophomore Sofia Rauzi took third with 285.08 points. O’Brien finished off a sweep of the springboards with her winning mark of 363.38 on three-meter.
Texas hits the road next week and heads to the west coast to take on California and Stanford.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas head coach Carol Capitani
On looking towards the rest of the season: We did some tough racing. It was a total team effort, which was really fun. We do have two big teams next week; we’re racing Cal and Stanford out there. We learned what we can do better. We learned our strong points. We matched up really well with N.C. State, so it was fun to be in this position.
On the importance of taking things one meet at a time: That’s kind of what we are doing, taking it one meet at a time…working on the little things. There are still a lot of places where we can get better, but I think we’re in a good spot right now. The focus is trying to make sure we keep our training up while we have all these meets.
On any surprises tonight: There weren’t a lot of surprises. They have some superstars. Hannah Moore is one of the best distance women in the country, so she gave Joanna [Evans] a run for her money. It was fun to see Joanna come back in that 200 free and win it because after racing a 1000 that’s pretty difficult to do. It was good to see Remedy Rule keep on knocking it out and getting good times. Madisyn [Cox], as always, is winning. It was good to win the sprints; Rebecca Millard shined. I think I could name almost everybody because we had a lot of great swims as a team. That’s not surprising, and that’s where we want to be, but we want to still do it by being honest with our work.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas (2-3) collected six events Friday evening, including two apiece from Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling and All-America diver Mark Anderson, but No. 3 N.C. State topped the Longhorns by a 173.5-126.5 count at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Olympic gold medalist Jack Conger scored the Horns’ first victory of the day in the 200 freestyle, where he was victorious in 1 minute, 35.82 seconds. Junior Jonathan Roberts added a third-place mark of 1:36.35.
Schooling, the Rio Olympics gold medalist in the 100m butterfly, won the 200 butterfly, an event in which he holds the NCAA record. Schooling took the win at 1:45.82 while senior Will Glass tied for second at 1:47.80.
Anderson led a one-two Texas finish in the three-meter diving event with 439.35 points. Freshman Grayson Campbell added a second-place mark of 429.08. Anderson returned to win the one-meter event with 389.10 points while Campbell took second with 346.12 points.
Olympic gold medalist Clark Smith led from wire-to-wire in the 500 freestyle and put away a victory in 4:17.09. Schooling returned to sweep the butterfly events and finished off a win at 100 yards in 46.93. Conger followed in second at 47.60.
The Texas divers resume competition in two weeks at the UT Diving Invitational. The swimmers return at the end of the month for the start of the annual Texas Invitational. The finals sessions of both meets will air live on Longhorn Network.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas head coach Eddie Reese
On the importance of Texas taking it one meet at a time: Well, this is our second loss this season and you need to know that it’s no fun. But it shows where we are. The years after the Olympics, I experiment and I never experiment easy. Practices are more difficult, and we just had the greatest and the hardest September we’ve ever had. And, it’s showing up. We couldn’t compete with Indiana or N.C. State. We’ve got a month before our (Texas) Invitational, and if we’re not a lot better there, we’re going to have to do some drastic stuff.
On how the performances lived up to any expectations coming into the meet: Our only expectation is to compete well. We want to race. They raced well, but we lost most close races. Fatigue can be a factor in that, and we didn’t know what the score would be. We’re getting people back, Joseph Schooling was back at this meet and swam well. Will Licon will be back at the Invite, so we’re getting there.
On his talks with the team after a loss: I tell them stories. One of the best teams we’ve ever had here was a team that won the first NCAAs. That team lost three dual meets during the season. It doesn’t matter as long as you do well at the NCAAs. We’re not like football or basketball, we don’t have to win everything. And it’s a good thing because I don’t know how to do that.
NC State Press Release
AUSTIN, Texas - The NC State swimming and diving team split its dual at Texas on Friday evening, as the third-ranked men's team topped the two-time defending national champion No. 2 Longhorns 173.5-126.5 while the fourth-ranked women fell to No. 7 UT 166.5-127.5 inside the Texas Swimming Center.
As the team won a combined 16 of 32 events contested, the Wolfpack men and Longhorn women improve to 3-0 while the Wolfpack women move to 2-1 and UT men fall to 2-3 on the regular season.
Quoting The Coaches
Swimming
"It was a great competition with the Longhorns today. When you put four good teams together head-to-head they bring out the best in each other," said head coach Braden Holloway. "Texas' women are strong across the board, but I think our women competed very well today. They stepped up more than we did and got the job done at home - we had some great event wins today but at the end of the day just couldn't keep up with them.
"It was a good win for our guys; they were ready to compete with Texas today. It hurt Texas a little bit with some injuries they have, but we were able to take advantage of it. The guys jumped out in the lead early and managed to keep the momentum going forward the entire time. We had multiple event winners and had some guys that are important to our depth put up some really big times and got their hand on the wall to get some big points for us. Overall it was a good team win for us but still have some areas we need to get stronger and smarter in."
Diving
"Overall today was a good day on the boards," said head diving coach Yahya Radman. "James (Brady) and Stewart (Spanbauer) showed up on three-meter finishing third and fourth, and on the one-meter we took third through fifth. All around it was a good effort from everyone. James qualified for Zones with a very simple list and now we can focus on the details and mechanics to take him to the next level.
"On the women's side Madeline (Kline) battled to the nails to finish fourth and qualify for Zones on both boards. Now we just need to add some DD and get comfortable with the list with Rachel and Bailey. We just need to clean up some mechanics to get them to where I believe they can be so that diving can help the team achieve our goals."
Wolfpack Relays
The Wolfpack men finished first and third in the 200 medley and freestyle relays, as the 200 medley squad that touched first in 1:27.10 comprised of Coleman Stewart, Derek Hren, Andreas Schiellerup and Ryan Held. The 200 free relay of Schiellerup, Joe Bonk, Mark McGlaughlin and Held swam a time of 1:18.86 to edge out UT's 'A' relay.
The women's 400 free relay squad of Alexia Zevnik, Ky-Lee Perry, Krista Duffield and Courtney Caldwell posted a time of 3:17.72 to capture a win while the 200 medley relay team of Elise Haan, Kayla Brumbaum, Duffield and Perry placed second in 1:38.93.
Top Individual Performances
Hannah Moore continued her impressive showing this season on the women's side, winning all three individual events she competed in. In the 1000 free she stopped the clock at 9:35.51, almost eight seconds faster than the rest of the field. She also dominated the field in the 500 free after stopping the clock at 4:43.13 and posted a mark of 4:15.35, bettering the NCAA 'B' standard time in both races.
Anton Ipsen grabbed an early event win for the Pack as he boasted a time of 8:52.04 in the 1000 free, while he was the top finisher in the 500 as he placed second in 4:19.05.
Hennessey Stuart led the team in the backstroke events, earning wins in the 100 and 200. He stopped the clock at 47.77 in the 100 and 1:44.23 in the 200. On the women's side Zevnik was the top finisher as she placed second in both races, posting a time of 53.51 in the 100 and 1:56.12 in the 200.
The men's team swept the 100 breaststroke and earned a one-two finish in the 200. Hren was the top finisher for the Pack as a stopped the clock at 54.69 while Patrik Schwarzenbach took the top honor in the 200 with a time of 2:00.32. Both specialists managed to better their NCAA 'B' cuts.
In the sprint events Held won the 50 and 100 free with times of 19.49 and 43.10, in respective order. Additionally Perry tabbed a win in the 50 free, tying with UT's Rebecca Millard at 22.55. In the men's 100 free Justin Ress and McGlaughlin rounded out the top three finishers in the race for the team's second event sweep of the evening.
Krista Duffield picked up a win in the 100 butterfly, edging out UT's Remedy Rule by .01 with a NCAA 'B' cut 54.27, while James Bretscher had a strong showing in the men's 200 fly, tying for second with a mark of 1:47.80 with the Longhorns' Will Glass.
Soren Dahl earned top-two finishes in both of his individual events. He won the 200 IM with a 1:47.96 and finished second in the 200 free with a 1:36.03, as both marks stand as NCAA 'B' cuts.
Diving
On the diving boards Madeline Kline notched her NCAA Zone qualification marks in both events contested as she tallied a score of 276.98 on the one-meter dive and a mark of 281.18 on the three-meter board. She was the top finisher on the women's side, coming in fourth on both events.
James Brady was the top competitor on the men's side, finishing third overall on both springboards. He posted a score of 311.82 on one-meter and 360.83 on three-meter, bettering the NCAA Zone marks in both events.
