When he came to Texas, Jack Conger was best known as a backstroker. Now, into his sophomore season at the University of Texas, Conger is emergin as one of the best butterfliers in the NCAA.
He was already 2nd in the nation in the 100 fly coming into this weekend’s two-day tri meet against Arizona and SMU, and now he leads the country in the 200 fly after swimming a suited 1:40.34.
That gives the Longhorns the three fastest 200 butterfliers in the country this season. The current top 5:
- Jack Conger, Texas, 1:40.34, soph.
- Joseph Schooling, Texas, 1:41.00, fresh.
- Clark Smith, Texas, 1:41.42, soph.
- Dylan Bosch, Michigan, 1:41.65, jr.
- Chase Kalisz, Georgia, 1:42.22, soph.
Schooling’s old nation-leader from the Texas Invite mid-season was the old school record, meaning that Conger will now earn the right to hang the old plaque from the record board bearing Schooling’s name in his room as a trophy, following in the Texas tradition.
That swim is also the 5th-best time in the 200 yard fly inNCAA history, and makes him the 4th-best performer.
Top 5 all-time performances in NCAA history
- Dylan Bosch, 1:39.33
- Tom Shields, 1:39.65
- Marcin Cieslak, 1:40.19
- Tom Shields, 1:40.31
- Jack Conger, 1:40.34
This wasn’t an end-of-season win for Conger, this was a January swim, and while he’s now the fastest Longhorn of all-time, he’ll still have some work to do to become the NCAA Champion. Besides his teammate Schooling, he’ll have to battle the defending champion and U.S. Open Champion Dylan Bosch from Michigan in March.
His teammate Tripp Cooper took 2nd in that race in 1:45.02.
The Rest of the Men’s Meet
Scores:
- Texas 287, SMU 83
- Texas 241, Arizona 126
- Arizona 241, SMU 128
Conger’s swim was just the tip of the iceberg for Texas as they rolled to the team victory on Saturday. That was his only individual swim on Saturday, so the race was his full focus for the day, but he also swam in the 200 medley relay.
The day began with that 200 medley, where the combination of Brett Ringgold (22.09), John Murray (25.06), Matt Ellis (21.14), and Conger (19.73).
Texas has so many swimmers with so much versatility that they’ve done some very different things, and in fact haven’t done a single one of their top 200 medley relays the same way this season.
And there’s no guarantees that it will settle here either. In the second Texas relay, that placed 3rd, Austin Temple was a 25.13 (just slower than Murray), and Kip Darmody was a 22.04 (a hair faster than Ringgold).
Matt Korman on the “C” relay was 25.20 on the breaststroke, and Radu Prunoiu was 25.27 on the “D” relay, so that spot is very much up-in-the-air.
Arizona took 2nd in that medley relay with a 1:29.03, including a 24.64 breaststroke split from Kevin Cordes and a 19.60 anchor from Brad Tandy – the team’s two stars.
Into the individual swims, Texas went 1-2-3 in the men’s 500 free, with the race coming down to Jake Ritter (4:24.22) and Sam Lewis (4:24.70). The two never really separated much in this race until after the 300 yard mark, where Ritter was able to open up a small lead. Youngquist was able to push back a bit in the last 50, but by that point he had a full second to make up, and it was just too much.
Clay Youngquist took 3rd in 4:28.40, and Arizona’s top finisher was Chris Wieser in 4th with a 4:31.08.
Next up was the men’s 200 free, where SMU’s Christian Scherubl won in 1:37.26. Scherubl joined the team at the semester, but already has the two fastest times in the American Athletic Conference this season.
Texas’ Clark Smith took 2nd in 1:38.69, and Arizona’s Michael Meyer was 3rd in 1:38.84.
Next came the 100 backstroke, where a Texas 1-2 put the Longhorns back on track for the day. Kip Darmody swam a 47.86 back-half swim to beat freshman teammate Brett Ringgold in 47.94.
SMU’s Sam Straughan took 3rd in 48.13.
Arizona’s best showing on the day as a team with a 1-2 finish from Andrew Sovero (54.44) and the defending NCAA Champion Kevin Cordes (54.60). Texas, though, grabbed big points with the 3rd-through-6th-place finishers.
That, combined with relay results, shows how this Texas breaststroke group is built. There’s a ton of depth, but they need someone to emerge at NCAA’s if they really want to separate from the rest of the country in March. Right now, that swimmer might be Austin Temple, who swam a 54.66 for 3rd place. Imri Ganiel was well behind with a 55.29 for 4th.
After Conger’s 200 fly, Arizona picked up another win when Brad Tandy swam a 19.87 to win ahead of Texas’ sprint duo Matt Ellis (19.89) and John Murray (19.94). That’s a rematch of the Texas Hall of Fame Invite invite 50 free that had Tandy-Murray-Ellis finishing in that order.
Arizona grabbed one more win to close the day’s individual events with a dominant 1:47.24 from Michael Meyer in the 200 IM, which was almost three seconds better than Texas’ Grant Rogers (1:50.06). Meyer, whose best strokes are the front-half fly and back legs, really separated himself on the breaststroke leg.
Texas bookended their relay victories with a 2:56.10 on the 400 free relay. Arizona was 2nd in 2:56.99 that included a 43.64 leadoff from Tandy.
Texas, though, had the best split of the day, when freshman Brett Ringgold led off their relay in 43.37. He was joined by teammates Aaron Gustafson (43.99), Keith Murphy (44.79), and Kip Darmody (43.95).
The Texas men have just a dual with TCU left before the Big 12 Championships at the end of the month. Arizona too has one in-state meet left, when they race Arizona State next Saturday. SMU just has an organized pre-conference time trial remaining.
Women’s recap to follow.
Day 2 results available here.
Day 1 results, recapped separately, available here.
Brett Ringgold will anchor the medley relay I’ll warrant. He cranked an :18 relay split at the Invite last December. He is something else.
That 18 split for Ringgold was a timing error. I posted here few weeks that Conger should not swim 100 back and there were riots in the streets. Again, do not have NCAA handy, but definitely 100/200 fly and 200 back likely, although 100/200 free and 100/200 fly are his future.
Ringgold’s 18.18 split anchoring the 200 free relay was a timing error, however he swam an 18.89 anchoring the 200 medley relay during the same meet. Hook ‘Em!!
Conger hasn’t swum a 200 IM at a meet since he was 14 (1:53). Perhaps breaststroke is hard on his knees, because that time gives no indication that it was a weak event for him.
He went 1:48 his senior year in high school:
http://swimswam.com/conger-swims-lifetime-best-in-200-im-by-5-seconds-at-catholic-high-school-champs/
that’s a crazy swim. i’m scared.
Any word where Schooling was?
he was probs too busy schooling at school. 😀
He has a hurt shoulder. He didn’t swim all weekend.
Conger has said (repeatedly?) that the 200 back is his favorite event, so you don’t see that going anywhere, at least at NCAA’s this year. Maybe he’ll change his mind as Rio gets closer.
Rather funny, though.
200 back – favorite event
100 fly – event where he has the fastest time this year
100 free – only individual event he’ll swim in a major international competition this summer. Although I wonder if he may bump Josa or Ellis for a spot on the fly leg of the medley relay.
Amazing swim. At this point, I’d have him swim both flys instead of back. The big question is what’s his third event? If he’s not training for the 500 (as Whoknows suggests), then does he double one day? He’ll play a critical role in relays, so ideally you have him swim 1 individual event a day. Which makes me wonder about that 200 IM…
Has conger ever seriously tried the 200 IM? Unless his breastroke is really bad he should be able to add that as one of his possible events.
That’s a good point. Conger could legitimately score at NCAA in
50/100/200/500 free
100/200 fly
100/200 back
So unless his breaststroke split is like a 35, his 200 IM should be scary too
Idk if it’s a mistake or if someone has already corrected it, but when you talk about Jack’s times, you say 100 fly not 200. Again, don’t know if it’s a mistake or nah but just checking.
@Boii: Thanks for letting us know. It has been updated.