2019 Austin Sectionals Preview: Texas, Texas A&M Swimmers Headline Entries

2019 ST TXLA Speedo Southern Sectionals

• July 11-14th
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
• Hosted by Longhorn Aquatics
• Long Course Meters
• Psych Sheet

The Speedo Sectionals meet in Austin, Texas is set to kick off tomorrow, July 11th. The meet is set to be heavily attended, with almost all individual events having well over 100 entries. Among those entries, the vast majority of the Texas and Texas A&M rosters entered to race. Most interestingly for Texas, swimmers John Shebat, Tate Jackson, and Jeff Newkirk are entered in the meet. All 3 of those swimmers were at WUGs, which just concluded today. According to WUGs head coach Braden Holloway, Newkirk fell ill at the beginning of the meet, which is why he didn’t end up competing on the 4×200 relay, as he was originally supposed to. Newkirk is only entered in the 400 free at this meet, but given his illness, it’s probably unlikely he’ll actually compete.

Shebat and Jackson are only entered in two events each, and those events are on separate days. Shebat is entered in the 200 back on Day 1, and the 50 free on Day 4. Given that he’s still in Italy less than 24 hours before the meet starts tomorrow, he isn’t likely to compete in the 200 back. Althoug, we may see him race the 50 free on Sunday. Jackson is entered in the 200 free on Friday, and the 50 free on Sunday. Jackson did a fair bit of racing at WUGs, competing in prelims and finals of the 100 free, as well as the 4×100 free relay and 4×100 medley relay. However, since he doesn’t race here until Friday morning, he may still follow through on his entries.

Of the other Texas swimmers entered in this meet, some of the headliners are Maxime Rooney, Clark Smith, Madisyn Cox, Drew Kibler, Matthew Willenbring, Will Licon, Sam Pomajevich, Alex Zettle, Daniel Krueger, Anelise Diener, Julia Cook, and Andrew Koustik. The Texas squad appears to be swimming mostly primary events, with the notable exception being Shebat entered in the 50 free and 200 back. Rooney is set for the 100/200 fly, 200 free, and 200 IM, while Clark Smith is set to swim the 200 fly, 200 free, 400 free, and his first 1500 of the season. Madisyn Cox isn’t entered in the 200 IM, but is in both breastsrokes, the 200 back, and 100 fly. Licon is only entered in two events – the 200 breast and 200 IM. Kibler is set for all freestyle races – the 50-400 frees.

Texas A&M has some of its stars in attendance, such as Bethany Galat, Sarah Gibson, Clayton Bobo, Anna Belousova, and Shaine Casas. Galat is racing the 100/200 breast, and 400 IM, while teammate Belousova is sticking to just the 100/200 breast. Clayton Bobo (listed as Timothy Bobo on psych sheet) is entered to compete in the 100 free, 200 free, and 100 fly. Shaine Casas showed a lot of versatility this past NCAA season, but settled for just 2 events at this meet –  the 200 back and 200 free. Sarah Gibson is swimming the 100/200 fly and 100/200 free.

Lillie Nordmann, who just recently announced her commitment to swim at Stanford in 2020, i entered in 6 individual events at this meet. Nordmann is set to race the 200 back, 200 fly, 200 free, 100 fly, 200 IM, and 50 free.

Events to watch out for:

• Men’s 200 free: the top 5 (Pomajevich, Kibler, Zettle, Bobo, Rooney) are all 1:50.00 or faster. Expand it to the top 12, all 12 are Texas or TAMU, and seeded 1:51.5 or better.
• Men’s 100 free: seeds #4-6 (Adam Koster, Willenbring, Mark Theall) are all within half a second of breaking the 50 second barrier. Koster and Willenbring are less than .1 seconds away.
• Men’s 200 fly: 6 guys in the field have already been under 2 minutes. Pomajevich and Koustik are both 1:56s. With the American men’s 200 fly appearing to have increased its depth lately, this race could be an interesting one.
• Women’s 200 fly: Sarah Gibson is the lone entrant under 2:10, but 16-year-old Lillie Nordmann is just .31 seconds from breaking that barrier herself.
• Women’s 100 breast: Belousova and Galat are seeded just .07 seconds apart, 1:06.34 & 1:06.41. Cox is not too far behind at 1:07.59, and could make this race interesting.