Carson Foster Goes 1:53.7 in the 200 Breast, Lifetime Bests Abound, as Texas Sweeps SMU

Texas vs. Southern Methodist University

• Friday, February 3, 2023
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
• SCY
• Dual meet format
• Full Results
• Live Results
• Also on Meet Mobile as “Texas Men & Women vs. SMU”
• Scores
  • Women: Texas 146, SMU 109
  • Men: Texas 181, SMU 83

The Southern Methodist University Mustangs headed to Austin this weekend to take on the #2 Texas Longhorns (men/women power rankings) in the Longhorns’ home pool.

As tends to be the case, the Longhorns won decisive victories on both sides. But, the Mustangs managed to put up a good fight, especially as many of the Texas stars swam limited or unusual schedules. It appears that at least most of the competitors were wearing tech suits.

Women’s Recap

The Longhorn women are slated to take on Rice and Texas Christian tomorrow in the “Jill Sterkel Classic.” Perhaps in part due to that, the Texas stars were relatively subdued tonight, with many of the big names swimming just one or two events.

The night began with the 200 medley relay, where the Longhorns won with a 1:36.98, about three seconds off the 1:33.70 they swam last week, which stands as the 2nd-fastest time in the nation this season. Tonight, Kelly Pash led off in 24.69, Anna Elendt split 26.32 on breast, Olivia Bray went 23.60 on fly, and Grace Cooper anchored in 22.37.

Each of those four swimmers swam just one additional event. Pash, normally a freestyler/IMer, won the 100 back in 52.57, setting a new personal best. Elendt took 5th in the 50 free (23.92). Bray won the 100 free in 49.75, and Cooper took 3rd in the 100 back (56.96). Additionally, Lydia Jacoby split 26.56 on the Texas ‘B’ relay before setting a new lifetime best in the 50 free with a 24.79.

Bridget Semenuk was one of the few members of the Texas core to stick to a more normal event, and she won the free in 22.43. She also had the fastest split on the 400 free relay, with a 49.51 on the third leg. The Longhorns touched first in that relay with a time of 3:23.04, although Texas chose to exhibition the points.

Texas freshman took center stage tonight, picking up a trio of victories. With the primary breaststrokers sticking to sprint free, Lindsey Hosch took the win in the 100 back, posting a 1:03.18. Chase Davison won the 200 back in 2:02.89, and Ella Myers took the 500 free in 4:59.85.

SMU put up a strong fight, though. That was evident early when Mustang Lucrezia Napole nearly ran down Longhorn Olivia McMurray on the final lap of the 200 free, with McMurray holding on to win, 1:50.47 to 1:50.49.

The 200 fly is normally a strength for the Longhorns, but again, the normal crew opted not to swim that event tonight, opening the door for a Mustang win. In fact, not only did SMU’s Luana Alonso win the 200 fly in 2:01.63, she doubled up with a 54.10 win in the 100 fly. SMU added another pair of wins in the 200 breast and the 200 IM with Ashley Lugbill (2:19.16) and Jenna Watson (2:04.96) taking those two events.

Men’s Recap

If you heard that a “Foster” won the 200 breast for Texas with a 1:53, you might think that’s a fairly fast in-season swim, but not think too much of it. But you’d also probably assume that the swim came courtesy of Jake Foster, who owns a lifetime best of 1:51.40 and has scored in this event at NCAAs the last two years.

But, no, tonight it was his brother Carson Foster, who crushed a three-second PR to win the 200 breast in 1:53.77. This event has taken such a leap forward over the last few years that his time tonight is still about half a second slower than it took to qualify for NCAAs last year. But, even allowing for the fact that he’s an elite IMer, it’s still remarkable that Foster now ranks 22nd in the nation in his “worst” stroke.

Carson Foster also won the 100 back tonight, clocking a 45.94 that’s just off of his 45.82 lifetime best. He ended the night with a 42.63 split on the Texas 400 free relay. Coby Carrozza was even faster, anchor the Longhorns in 42.27, as the Longhorns touched first in 2:52.91 despite not trotting out their strongest lineup.

Like the women, the Texas men’s stars largely swam “off” events, and that led to several other PRs. Luke Hobson won the 100 free with a new lifetime best of 42.58. Hobson is primarily a middle distance freestyler, and while he swam the 1650 at NCAAs last year, he went 49.13 (LCM) last summer, indicating that he may be leaning towards the shorter end of the freestyle spectrum. It’s looking increasingly likely that he’ll follow the example of former Longhorn Townley Haas, who dropped the 1650 for the 100 free after his freshman year. Hobson also won the 100 fly tonight with a lifetime best of 47.74.

Senior Caspar Corbeau swam a bit of a hybrid schedule tonight. He skipped his strongest two events, the 100 and 200 breast, but he swam the 200 IM, an event in which he’s scored at NCAAs, and won it tonight in 1:44.96. He also swam the 50 free, winning that event in a lifetime best of 19.61. Corbeau has become part of the core of the Longhorns’ sprint freestyles , and he split 18.67 on Texas’ 200 free relay at NCAAs last year.

Like Corbeau, Jake Foster skipped both breastrokes but won a freestyle event. In this case, he won the 500 free in 4:18.46, about half a second off of his lifetime best from 2019. Fellow senior Ethan Harder won the 200 back in a season-best time of 1:42.49. Harder has qualified for the NCAA championships each of the last two seasons, and probably would’ve qualified in 2020, but has yet to swim at NCAAs due to meet roster cap limitations and the depth of the Texas roster. The Longhorns don’t seem quite as deep this year, so Harder stands a good chance of actually competing at NCAAs if he can get under the invite time.

Freshman Spencer Aurnou-Rhees also earned a win for Texas, taking the 200 free in 1:36.13.

Just as on the women’s side, the Mustang men battled hard against tough competition. They opened up with the meet with a strong showing in the 200 medley. Cole Bruns led off in 21.91, which tied the Mustangs with Texas ‘B’ team for the lead after the first 50, and SMU ended up finishing less than a second behind the Texas ‘A’ team, which won 1:26.03 to 1:26.81.

Colin Feehery won the 100 breast by nearly a second with a time of 53.07. He also pushed Foster the 200 breast (1:54.44) and Corbeau in the 200 IM (1:45.34), taking 2nd in both of those events.