Olympic gold medalist and six-time NCAA champion Joseph Schooling rewrote the Longhorns’ eight-year-old school mark in the 50-yard freestyle and highlighted day two for the Longhorns Thursday evening at the 2017 Big 12 Championships.
Schooling, the reigning Olympic champion in the 100m butterfly who holds NCAA records in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events, added a fifth school record to his collection when he clocked 18.76 seconds to win Thursday’s 50 freestyle final. The mark eclipsed the previous school and Big 12 mark of 18.84 set by two-time U.S. Olympian Jimmy Feigen at the 2009 NCAA Championships in College Station.
Olympic gold medalist Jack Conger followed in second behind Schooling at 19.27 while junior Brett Ringgold took third at 19.29. Sophomore Tate Jackson placed fourth at 19.52 and senior P.J. Dunne took sixth at 19.89. Senior Will Glass also cleared the 20-second mark at 19.99.
Olympic gold medalist Clark Smith, a former NCAA champion in the 500-yard freestyle, won the same event Thursday evening in 4:11.11, which eclipsed the meet record of 4:11.41 by Texas’ Michael Klueh at the 2008 Big 12 Championships in Austin. Olympic gold medalist Townley Haas, the defending NCAA champion in the event, followed closely behind in second at 4:12.90. Sophomore Jeff Newkirk, who has produced breakthrough swims already this week in the 200 and 500 freestyles, placed third at 4:15.99 while junior Jonathan Roberts took fourth at 4:24.41.
Senior Will Licon, the defending NCAA champion in the 200 IM, claimed the Big 12 title in the event in 1:42.35 while sophomore John Shebat took second at 1:42.99. Sophomore Sam Stewart followed in third at 1:45.16 while freshman Josh Artmann took fourth at 1:46.58.
Texas wrapped the evening with a win in the 400 medley relay, where Texas has won the last two NCAA titles and holds the NCAA record. The same four who won the NCAA crown and currently hold that NCAA record – Shebat (46.24), Licon (50.83), Schooling (45.64) and Conger (42.62) – took the win Thursday evening in 3:05.33, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut.
Texas leads the Big 12 Championships with 398 points through the second of four days. West Virginia holds second with 299 points while TCU sits in third with 216 points.
Texas sophomore Joanna Evans toppled a 25-year-old school mark, and senior Madisyn Cox lowered her own school mark in the 200 IM, as No. 3 Texas swept night two at the 2017 Big 12 Championships.
Evans, a Rio Olympian from The Bahamas, kicked off the night by breaking the long-standing school mark in the 500-yard freestyle, where she was victorious in 4:36.97. The swim broke the previous school mark of 4:37.73 set by Olympian Erika Hansen at the 1992 NCAA Championships. It also took down the Big 12 mark of 4:37.81 set by Texas A&M’s Cammile Adams at the 2011 Big 12 Championships.
Freshman Lauren Case placed second in the event at 4:40.09, and sophomore Quinn Carrozza took third at 4:45.97. Senior Maggie D’Innocenzo placed sixth at 4:49.56.
Cox followed by lowering her school and Big 12 marks in the 200 IM, as she claimed her fourth straight conference title in the event at 1:52.82, one one-hundredth of a second off her 1:52.83 school mark from the Texas Invitational in December. Sophomore Nora McCullagh added a second-place mark of 1:58.89.
Junior Rebecca Millard secured her second straight league crown in the 50 freestyle at 22.03. Freshman Claire Adams took second at 22.33 while sophomore Anelise Diener placed third at 22.61. Sophomore Remedy Rule took fourth at 22.62 while sophomore Brooke Hansen placed seventh at 23.16.
Sophomore Meghan O’Brien captured her first career Big 12 diving title and claimed the one-meter event with 338.80 points. Freshman Alison Gibson placed second with 327 points while sophomore Sofia Rauzi took fourth with 293.15 points.
Texas wrapped the night by winning the 400 medley relay, as senior Tasija Karosas joined Cox, Rule and Millard to finish in 3:31.05, well under the NCAA “A” cut of 3:33.40.
Texas leads the championships with 355 points while Kansas holds second with 208.5 points. Iowa State holds third with 206 points, and West Virginia sits in fourth 188 points. TCU is in fifth with 154.5 points.
