It was a tale of two history-making meets on Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas, as the two newest members of the Big 12 Conference squared off in a dual meet that made notable marks in both schools’ record-books.
In the men’s meet, West Virginia took the win in a score of 167-133, which marked the Mountaineers’ first-ever intraconference dual meet win as a member of the Big 12.
In the women’s meet, it was TCU who took the win in 164-121, which moves them to 3-0 in the conference after previous wins over Kansas and Iowa State. That guarantees the winningest in-conference season for the Horned Frogs in the Big 12, following a 2-1 record in their inaugural 2012-2013 season.
Men’s Meet
In the men’s meet, the West Virginia Mountaineers received big scoring from senior Bryce Bohman. He led the meet off with a splendid 22.71 backstroke split on the 200 yard medley relay, bettering TCU’s Cooper Robinson, a great swimmer in his own right, by seven-tenths of a second. That is a lead the Mountaineers wouldn’t relinquish in that race (though sophomore Ford Story split 25.2 on the breaststroke leg to get them close), as they won 1:31.45-1:32.31.
The backstroke battles would be the best of the meet. Bohman won the 100 in 48.54, going out in a lightning-fast 23.3 at the turn. He beat Adam Szilagyi (49.10) and Robinson again (49.41).
In Robinson’s specialty event, the 200 back, he wouldn’t be topped, swimming to a 1:46.36 to beat Bohman by half-a-second (1:46.87).
Bohman added another individual win in his last swim of the meet with a 48.94 in the 100 yard butterfly – bettering Szilagyi by a second-and-a-half.
West Virginia also dominated the diving, going 1-2 in both springboard events (though have no fear swim-fans, that was not enough to account for the entire scoring difference in the meet).
The West Virginia men swept the sprint freestyles, with Julien Vialette winning the 50 in 21.28 and a 46.54 from Andrew Marsh. TCU’s Thor Stenfjord packed up a pair of wins too; the first was in the 200 fly in 1:51.78, and later the 400 IM in 4:04.63.
Women’s Meet
The women’s meet ran with very similar story lines as the men’s meet, though in reverse. Lyndsie Gibson led off TCU’s 200 medley relay in 26.53 to give her squad a lead, and with Gabrijela Korac, Ali Polhill, and Julia Sanders, a relatively-young Horned Frog relay swam a 1:45.02 ahead of West Virginia’s 1:45.75.
Gibson would go on to win the 100 back in 57.08 ahead of teammate Ashley Alspaugh (57.53); and a 2:03.36 in the 200 yard backstroke. West Virginia gave up some points in those races, as they only entered a single swimmer, Courtney Miller, in both races.
Where West Virginia didn’t give up points was in the sprint freestyles. In the 50, sophomore Jaimee Gillmore won in 24.12 over TCU’s Meagan Thompson.
TCU’s Mackenzie Schuler won the 100 in 53.10, just ahead of Gillmore’s 53.15, but in the meet-closing 400 free relay, it was West Virginia who ran away with the race in 3:35.89 ahead of TCU’s 3:41.44.