The Texas Longhorns have been the most dominant figures at men’s NCAAs this past week, outscoring their second place rivals Cal by 129 points to bring home an 11th title for the Texas Longhorns and head coach Eddie Reese.
After three days of competition the Longhorns managed to muster a whopping 528 points, winning a grand total of 7 NCAA titles. That’s their second highest point total in NCAA history. The Longhorns also managed to set a new US Open record and fastest swim in history in the 400 medley relay with their winning time of 3:01.23.
The Texas team also brought a few firsts for the school. For the first time in school history, they put a swimmer on the top of the podium in the 400 IM. Will Licon, who’s been on fire all season long demonstrating one of the best freshman to sophomore progressions in the NCAA, took down defending 400 IM champion Chase Kalisz en route to a gold and his first individual NCAA title.
Clark Smith added to the list of firsts with a 500 freestyle victory marking the first time a Texas male has ever won the 500 at an NCAA Championships. Smith took down a very tough field to post a time of 4:09.72, being the only swimmer under 4:10.
Those titles for Licon and Smith also mark an amazing feat for Texas. They’ve now had champions in 20 of the 21 contested events at the NCAA Championships.
The Texas men also became the first team to put six swimmers in the final of one event, doing so in the 100 fly. There, they finished first through fourth, sixth, and eighth putting up 92 points in one championship event. That was also the first time any school went 1-2-3-4 in an event.
Under Eddie Reese’s guidance, Texas has now secured a top three finish at 29 of the 37 NCAA Championship meets that they’ve contested since Reese’s arrival in 1978. Reese is the only coach to win NCAA team titles in four different decades.
With their 11th title, the Texas Longhorns are now tied for second with Ohio State as the winningest team in men’s NCAA history. The only team with more titles than them is Michigan with a grand total of 12.
Eddie Reese personally is now tied with Ohio State’s Mike Peppe as the winningest coach in NCAA history with 11 titles to his name. Reese won his first national title in 1981 over UCLA.
An NCAA victory takes a complete effort from all members of the coaching staff and team. Regardless of their contributions, it takes a total team effort to win a team title at this level. The excellent coaching staff at Texas matched with a very complete roster riddled with depth added up to equal a win here in Iowa. They showed strength and versatility all season long before ultimately being crowned the 2015 NCAA Champions. Congratulations Texas.
The complete Texas Roster it appears on the Texas athletic site:
| Swimmer | Class |
| Mark Anderson | So |
| Cory Bowersox | Jr |
| Jared Butler | Fr |
| Will Chandler | Sr |
| Jack Conger | So |
| Tripp Cooper | Sr |
| Kip Darmody | Sr |
| P.J Dunne | So |
| Matt Ellis | Jr |
| Imri Ganiel | R-So |
| Will Glass | So |
| Aaron Gustafson | Jr |
| Hayden Henry | So |
| Matt Korman | Sr |
| Ian LeMaistre | Jr |
| Sam Lewis | Jr |
| Will Licon | So |
| Liam Lockwood | Jr |
| Cory Loria | So |
| John Martens | Jr |
| Nicolas Munoz | Sr |
| Keith Murphy | Sr |
| John Murray | Jr |
| Sean O’Brien | Jr |
| Radu Prunoiu | Jr |
| Brett Ringgold | Fr |
| Jacob Ritter | Sr |
| Jonathan Roberts | Fr |
| Grant Rogers | Sr |
| Chris Scheaffer | So |
| Joseph Schooling | Fr |
| Andrew Skowronek | So |
| Clark Smith | So |
| Austin Temple | Fr |
| Alec Willrodt | R-Fr |
| Clay Youngquist | Sr |
Congrat’s to the Texas Men’s Swimming team and Mr. Reese.
Your article begs the question: what is the ONE event his swimmers have never won at the NCAA Championships?
Well, since I got no response, I’m going to guess: the 200 fly.
Congrats to Texas, swimmers, divers and coaches on a very dominant win.
Wish I could see the tower! Been speculating like 8 months now…. I’m ready for next year’s meet and Olympics.
Hookem!