The Texas men are rolling the dice at the Big 12 Championships this year. Not that the team battle is in question, but normally the Longhorns have 4-5 guys who don’t shave for this meet. This year, with their eyes locked on a national title, that number is reported to be more like 10. For the most part, it’s not going to be an issue, but there’s at least one swimmer who will be biting his nails during the men’s Pac 12 meet next week.
Women’s 200 Free Relay
The Missouri 200 free relay, especially with Shara Stafford on board, is a strong group. This we knew coming into the meet. Few would have considered it a stretch that they might challenge the A&M women, in a down year, for the 2nd-place position in this 200 free relay.
But this was Texas’ race to win. They have a deep sprint group, and a very talented sprint group, headlined by Karlee Bispo.
And so imagine the noise that filled the Mizzou Aquatics Center when Lisa Nathanson got her fingers on the wall first in 1:28.43 to give the Tigers the victory.
That is the first Big 12 relay title in the history of this Missouri women’s program (and only 5th overall), and is a big hurdle as coach Greg Rhodenbaugh tries to build this program for the SEC. The quartet of Shara Stafford (on a 22.0 leadoff), Cassie Cunningham, Emily Doucette, and Nathanson are the fastest in school history, breaking a record that the same foursome has downed once already this season.
Texas touched 2nd in 1:28.57, with A&M a distant 3rd in 1:29.81.
In terms of the effect on the team battle, the upset victory is a big boon for the Aggies, as they were expecting to lose a lot of ground to Texas on this relay. The bad news for the Aggies is that their time may leave them on the wrong side of the bubble for an invite, meaning that they’ll have to finagle this relay at NCAA’s.
Men’s 200 Free Relay
The Texas men cruised to an easy victory in the 200 free relay in 1:18.23, including a second sub-19 relay anchor from Jimmy Feigen with an 18.98 on the Longhorns’ final leg. They were about half-a-second faster than this at their own Hall of Fame Invite in December.
The Texas A&M A relay took 2nd in 1:19.13, which was surprisingly slow given how well they swam on the first day of this meet. They were really hurt by a 20.27 leadoff from sophomore Kyle Troskot, and finished in a time that won’t earn an invite to NCAA’s.
Fortunately for them, most of the swimmers they need to get in have/will qualify on other relays, so there won’t be a ton of need to time trial this one – though they may regardless – as they did score a “B” invitational time.
Note: Missouri earned 2nd-place points, as A&M “exhibitioned” their A-relay to meet event entry requirements. Their B-relay, the official scoring group, took 3rd place points.
Missouri took 3rd in 1:18.23.
Texas also got a great split from freshman Tripp Cooper on their B relay in 19.47. Granted, he’s probably more rested than the guys on the A, but that was the Longhorns’ 2nd-best split from across their two entries in this race, and is encouraging for the future.
Women’s 1 Meter Diving
The Texas women are missing a huge portion of their diving squad at this meet, and had only one entry on the 1-meter in Samantha Holland. A&M, on the other hand, had 5 entries, and put 4 into the championship final. The scoring implications if the diving continues this way are huge.
A&M’s Janie Potvin took the win, and Rebecca St. Germain, an LSU transfer took 2nd to match her runner-up performance from the SEC last year.
Surprisingly absent from the medal stand was A&M’s Jaele Patrick, who came in 7th with a few bad dives. She was one of the best divers in the country before redshirting last year, and while A&M has to be happy about the performances of Potvin and St. Germain, they can’t feel good about Patrick’s finish.
Holland took 6th in the diving, which means that A&M outscored Texas 66-13 in the event. Continued success like that is going to be a big factor in the final team outcome.
Women’s 500 Free
The A&M women continued to build a cushion towards the session-ending 50 free in this 500 with a 1-2 finish from Maureen McLaine (4:41.19) and Cammile Adams (4:42.18). The pair was way out ahead of the 3rd-place finisher, but the times weren’t all that fast. McLaine actually matched exactly her time from prelims, and Adams added two seconds off of her morning mark.
Texas’ distance group continued to be carried by their young swimmers – Kelsey Leneave (4:45.19) finished 3rd, and Kaitlin Pawlowicz (4:45.80) who finished 5th. Both have been significantly faster this season, however.
In between the pair of Longhorns was Cammile’s twin sister Ashley Adams, who’s made big improvements this season, in 4:45.76.
Texas’ Leah Gingrich slid all the way to 7th in 4:49.70. Much like last year, she had a lot of trouble on her second swim in this race – she was a bit better in 4:47 in prelims.
The lone none-Lone Star swimmer in the final was Kansas’ Rebecca Swank, who was 8th in 4:50.92.
Men’s 500 Free
Texas’ Jackson Wilcox played the 500 free very well, and coasted through prelims before breaking out a 4:19.46 in the final. He has been faster this season, but he successfully took a career sweep of Big 12 Championships in the event. Texas has won every 500 free in the conference’s history aside from the first one (which was won by Erik Jorgensen of Kansas before they cut their program). Wilcox is the 2nd swimmer to earn a career sweep of the event, following Scott Goldblatt from 1998-2001.
In 2nd was Michael McBroom in 4:20.79. He finished the race strong, which indicates the potential for a strong mile swim on the meet’s final day. He’s going to need a small drop in that race to feel safe about his qualifying chances for NCAA’s – he doesn’t have a relay to fall back on, and his 500 time isn’t going to qualify him.
Texas freshman Jake Ritter had an awesome time of 4:21.89 for 3rd. With a highly-heralded Texas middle-distance group in this year’s freshman class, Ritter upset them all at this meet (Youngquist was 7th). Unlike many of his teammates, though, Ritter was probably in the Big 12 taper group. Still a great time for him.
Missouri freshman Eegan Groome also performed well for 4th in 4:22.08.
A&M’s top finisher was Paul-Marc Schweitzer in 4:23.20 for 6th. That’s the 2nd-best time in A&M history for the sophomore.
Women’s 200 IM
Many of the top Longhorn women are not swimming great at this meet. Karlee Bispo is a huge exception to that. She’s having a strong meet, about where she likely wants to be four weeks out from NCAA’s, and won the 200 IM in 1:56.05. She had a strong foundation on the opening butterfly leg, and rode that momentum, on an overall balanced race, to the win.
That’s among the top-10 times in the country this season.
Sophomore Kim Pavlin of Texas A&M had a great swim as well for 2nd in 1:56.63. That’s her lifetime best by two seconds, better than her swim from last year’s Big 12 Championship.
In 3rd was Missouri’s Shara Stafford in 1:57.15. She might have been better served contending the 50 free – her leadoff from the relay would have easily taken that title.
A&M and Texas were about even on the scoring in this race, which left the Aggies with a 61-point lead headed into the 50 free.
Men’s 200 IM
The Texas men swept one-through-four in this 200 IM, headed by Nick D’Innocenzo in 1:45.40. Austin Surhoff took 2nd in 1:45.58.
The top finishing Texas A&M swimmer was sophomore Simon Frank in 1:47.30 for 5th. His prelims time of 1:46.97 broke the school record.
Missouri’s Yaniv Shnaider tied for 6th in 1:47.49 with A&M’s John Wagner.
Women’s 50 Free
Texas needed to make a big push to get back into the meet in this 50 free, and they did just that with a 1-2-3 sweep of the medal stand from Ellen Lobb (22.56), Kelsey Amundsen (22.71), and Bethany Adams (22.73). With those three, and the conference’s best swimmer Bispo, it becomes even harder to believe that they were upset in the session-opening relay.
Missouri’s Lisa Nathanson placed 4th in 22.76, which bumped the A&M sprinters even further down the rankings. A&M’s two A-finalists finished 5th (Caroline McElhaney) and 6th (freshman Sammie Bosma).
Iowa State made their first appearance in a top-8 with their best sprinter (swimmer?) Amanda Paulson in 7th in 22.89. She didn’t lose a 50 free in a single dual meet for the Cyclones this season.
Breeja Larson took the banana final in the event in 23.01. She dropped about three-tenths here from her in-season swims, so don’t be surprised if she has great swims when she moves into the breaststrokes later in the meet.
Texas made a dent in A&M’s lead on this 50 free, to push it down into the 40’s. They’ll need to perform much better on day 2, however, if they want this to be a competition on Saturday.
Men’s 50 Free
Texas’ Jimmy Feigen swam an urested 19.26 to take the win in the men’s 50 free. That’s the 2nd-best time in the country this season. With the Pac 12 yet to come, and knowing how tired the Longhorn men have looked in this meet, he’s going to be very hard to beat next month.
The runner-up was Texas A&M’s John Dalton in 19.76. That huge gap showed just how dominant Feigen is in the 50 free.
Missouri’s Ramon Melo was the only other swimmer under 20 seconds in the final in 19.96.
In 4th place was a tie between Texas’ Dax Hill and A&M’s Kyle Troskot in 20.05. That’s a slightly better swim for Troskot than he led the relay off in, but still was shy of his target. Dalton probably moves back onto the A&M medley after this head-to-head battle.
Texas’ Kerrington Hill, younger brother of Dax, had a good swim of 20.15 to win the C-Final. He is actually on Texas’ non-scoring squad, but beat his older brother in prelims of this race. Remember that right before his explosion, Dax was on a Big 12 B-squad. He came back the next year and had transformed into one of the country’s top freestylers. Texas will be hoping for a similar experience with Kerrington next season.
Standings
Women
1. Texas A&M 342
2. Texas 296
3. Missouri 225
4. Kansas 128
5. Iowa State 121
Men
1. Texas 371.5
2. Texas A&M 267
3. Missouri222.5
Jimmy Feigen is also a four-time winner in the 50 freestyle at Big 12. He tied with Dave Walters for first place in his freshmen year.
Good catch Beth!