The Texas women smashed a school record in the 800-yard free relay, while the Stanford men picked up a victory in the men's distance relay on night one of the Texas Invitational.
Texas Press Release
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas kicked off the annual Texas Invitational with a bang, as the Longhorns smashed their seven-year-old school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay Wednesday evening at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas won the event with room to spare at 6 minutes, 56.52 seconds, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark and the No. 2 time in the country this season. Arizona followed in second at 7:01.08.
Ten-time All-America senior Madisyn Cox led off the relay in 1:43.62 – good for the sixth-fastest 200 freestyle swim in school history - before Olympian Joanna Evans split 1:46.31 on the relay’s second leg. Freshman Claire Adams split an impressive 1:43.05 on the relay’s third leg before senior Tasija Karosas anchored in 1:43.54. The final mark of 6:56.52 eclipsed the previous school mark of 6:58.37 set by Karlee Bispo, Leah Gingrich, Katie Riefenstahl and Kathleen Hersey at the 2009 Big 12 Championships.
“We’re really deep in that event and we’ve worked hard to get to this point,” UT head coach Carol Capitani said. “I’ve been waiting a long time to put the right people together to make that happen. That event has changed since it’s the first event of the NCAA Championships and it can set the tone for that week. It was a lot of fun, and they earned that school record.”
With the first of 18 events in the books, Texas awaits day two of the Texas Invite on Thursday. The preliminary round opens at 10 a.m. CT with finals set for live coverage on Longhorn Network at 6 p.m. CT.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas picked up third- and seventh-place finishes from its 800 freestyle relays on day one of the Texas Invitational Wednesday at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
UT’s “A” relay featuring seniors Jack Conger and P.J. Dunne and sophomores Jeff Newkirk and Townley Haas took third at 6:20.85, just shy of the NCAA automatic-qualifying cut.
The Longhorns’ “B” relay with freshman Jacob Huerta, seniors Will Licon and Clark Smith and junior Jonathan Roberts placed seventh at 6:25.72.
With the first of 18 events in the books, Texas awaits day two of the Texas Invite on Thursday. The preliminary round opens at 10 a.m. CT with finals set for live coverage on Longhorn Network at 6 p.m. CT.
Stanford Press Release
AUSTIN, Texas – Stanford began its final event of the Fall by winning the 800-yard freestyle relay on Wednesday night at the Texas Invitational.
Stanford’s team of senior Tom Kremer, freshman Grant Shoults, freshman James Murphy and junior Liam Egan won the lone event of the evening, finishing over three seconds ahead of USC with 6:15.58.
Stanford’s “B” team of junior Sam Perry, freshman True Sweetser, freshman William Macmillan and senior Maxwell Williamson finished with a respectable 6:22.20 in fifth place.
Prelims for individual events will begin Thursday morning at 8 a.m. PT, with finals starting later that day at 4 p.m. The meet continues into the weekend, with morning prelim and afternoon finals sessions on tap for Friday and Saturday.
The four-day meet, which will have an environment similar to that of the Pac-12 and NCAA Championship meets, will feature hosts Texas, USC, Arizona, Brigham Young, Harvard, Denver and Oklahoma Baptist.
Longhorn Network (ESPN) will air live coverage of all “A” final heats during the Thursday and Saturday finals sessions and tape-delayed coverage from the Friday evening finals session.
