University of Texas junior Catherine Wagner, a Finance major, is leading our coverage on the Big 12 Championships this week.
Women
In the first prelims session of the Big 12 Championships, the West Virginia Mountaineers took the top seed in 2 of the 3 events. In the 500 freestyle, with the distance events being a strength historically for the team, seniors Mandie Nugent and Rachael Burnett showed the strength of West Virginia’s distance group by finishing first and second, in times of 4:42.38 and 4:42.40, respectively.
They were followed by Texas’ Kelsey Leneave in 4:45.53 and Kaitlin Pawlowicz in 4:47.66.
The Mountaineers also took the top seed in the 200 Individual Medley thanks to Breanna McCann’s 1:59.27. She was followed by Texas senior Laura Sogar (1:59.55) and sophomore Skylar Smith (2:00.50). Notably, Texas sophomore Gretchen Jaques exhibitioned the event in a time of 1:57.77 – the fastest time of the morning overall.
In the final individual event of the morning, the Lady Longhorns were able to show off their sprint group by taking 4 of the 8 positions in the A final. They were led by junior Ellen Lobb who took the top seed in 22.38. TCU’s Sabine Rasch was second in 22.68 with third going to Texas’ Kelsey Amundsen in 22.76.
Men
The Texas men took the top 8 times in the 500 freestyle, with the top seed going to Sam Lewis’ 4:17.61. Distance teammates Michael McBroom (4:20.17) and Jake Ritter (4:20.42) round out the top 3.
In the 200 Individual Medley, the Longhorns kept the momentum rolling and took the 5 spots. Austin Surhoff was first in 1:44.23, followed by fellow seniors Dax Hill (1:45.74) and Conor Swanson (1:46.43). Due to swimmers on B squads not being allowed to swim in the A final, TCU’s Mitchell Adshead will move up to the Championship heat in this 200 IM.
Texas’ dominance continued to the 50 freestyle courtesy of a 1-2-3 finish from Charlie Moore (19.66), John Murray (19.72), and Madison Wenzler (19.86). Interesting to note that Hill is swimming the 200 IM at this meet as compared to the 50 free, which has typically been his first day event.
Tonight’s competition will begin at 6:00 PM Central, with finals of the 500 Freestyle, 200 Individual Medley, 50 Freestyle, and 400 Medley Relay.
Can someone explain the A and B squad rule, in regards to the TCU swimmer getting bumped to the A final because of this rule. I swam DII and am pretty sure there was never anything like that, other than A and B relays of course.
Lindsey – Because the Big 12 has so few teams, they’ve always done it this way. Only a certain number of swimmers count for scoring, but because those teams can often barely fill up an A-Final, they let everyone else race and just automatically drop them to the lowest heat, and they don’t score. It’s as compared to a time trial. Usually gets faster results.