Big 12 Swimmers of the Week
Men’s Swimmer of the Week- Nick D’Innocenzo (Texas)- D’Innocenzo is finally hitting his stride in college, with 3 event wins against Arizona.
Women’s Swimmer of the Week– Karlee Bispo (Texas)- Bispo dominated the Longhorns’ dual with Arizona, including 4 individual event wins and 3 relay victories. She’s emerged as the new leader of this team, and will be hoping to lead the Texas women back into the top 5 at NCAA’s.
Texas Doubles Up in Two-Day Dual Against Arizona
The annual Arizona-Texas two day dual meet has become one of the nation’s premier annual meets. Two weeks ago, the men’s battle looked like it would be the premier meet in the nation this year, as the Longhorns were ranked #1, and the Wildcats were #2. That was before both teams suffered tough defeats over the past few weeks. Still, with both teams ranked in the top 10 (Arizona is ranked sixth, and Texas fourth), but both teams are definitely still in the hunt for the National crown.
On the women’s side, both teams started out very hot. Despite significant losses, both the Lady Longhorns and Wildcats put up a lot of fantastic early-season results. They too each fell shortly before the last poll release, but still have many swimmers who will contend for individual and relay National Titles. The intriguing part of this battle is that the two women’s teams are probably the two hardest to peg at NCAA’s.
Last year, the Wildcats won both meets in Tucson. This year, with the action shifted back to Austin, the Longhorns swept their counterparts by scores of 186.5-155.5 (Men’s) and 189-156 (Women’s). The SMU men also joined in on the action with some pretty solid swims, though they dropped both meets by large margins.
The story of the day for the Longhorn men was the evolution of their newest contributors. They have known all-season long that if they hope to contend, that they needed a lot of new faces to step up with big results, and that was punctuated hugely in this meet.
This started with Nick D’Innocenzo in the 400 IM: the meet’s very first individual event. D’Innocenzo battled a string of illnesses last season and was never quite able to put things together as many had expected. He’s back with a vengeance this season, and took three individual event wins. On day one, he won the 400 IM in 3:48.78, and placed second in the 200 breaststroke in 1:58.66. On day 2, he won the 100 breaststroke (55.01), and took his second IM event in 1:47.31. The dominance in the 200 IM was probably the best of the four swims, and he really put the field away with an outstanding 30.85 split on the breaststroke. This sits only behind defending National swimmer of the year Conor Dwyer’s 1:47-flat as the best time of the semester.
There were several other rising contributors for the Longhorns. Freshman Woody Joye won the 100 fly in 48.42, just .04 ahead of Neil Caskey. He also placed second to D’Innocenzo in the 200 IM (1:47.50), and finished the same position at .04 behind Jimmy Feigen in the 200 free (1:36.86). These times all make him medal contenders in those events. Sophomore transfer Michael McBroom, who is not new in the national sense, but is in his first year at Texas, won the mile in 15:19.18, and touched second in the 500 (4:26.65), less than half-a-second behind All-American teammate Jackson Wilcox. Dax Hill also continued his emergence with a second place in the 100 free of 44.25. Another National High School record holder (this Texas roster is littered with them) Cole Cragin even knocked off NCAA 100 back-favorite Cory Chitwood with a 48.18.
But all of these names were known on some level as youth swimmers. This is in stark contrast to freshman Madison Wenzler, who collegeswimming.com didn’t even have ranked in their top 300 national swimmers coming out of high school in Tennessee. Wenzler had his breakout in this meet, including times of 22.49 in the 50 back, a 49.74 in a 100 back relay leadoff, and a 19.90 50 free relay split that beat all but Feigen in the Longhorns’ A-relay. In this one weekend, Wenzler has gone from a lineup-filler to a potential option for an A-relay.
The best swim for the Arizona men was the first, where they won the 200 free relay in 1:19.89. This is the nation’s second-best time in that relay since holiday training ended, and featured three sub-20 splits. The fastest among those was a 19.71 from freshman Mitchell Friedemann, who continues to exceed the already lofty expectations in his inaugural campaign.
Friedemann isn’t the only top freshman sprinter that Frank Busch and crew are developing down in the desert. On the women’s side, that description fits Margo Geer, who is already amongst the top freestylers in the country. On this day, she was able to take second in the individual 50 free (23.23), individual 100 free ( and anchored Arizona’s second-place 400 medley in 48.78, which was the fastest 100 split on the weekend.
But she didn’t earn top female-sprinter honors on the weekend. That went to Texas’ Karlee Bispo, who was unbelievable at this meet. She won the 50 free (22.95), 100 free (49.24), 200 free (1:47.92), the 200 IM (2:00.73), was second in the 200 breaststroke (2:14.14), and was a part of three winning relays. Both her conditioning and speed seem to have her perched to lead the Texas women to a big bounceback at NCAA’s.
SMU doesn’t have nearly the depth that the other two squads does, but they did put up some very good times. Their senior captain Tom Cole, who scored the team’s lone point at NCAA’s last year, won his specialty the 200 breaststroke in a time of 1:58.14. This is his best time of the year, and pushes him into the top-20 in the season. SMU also had a great showing in the 50 free (Mindaugus Sadauskas-20.12) and 200 fly (Blaz Korosec-1:50.04).
The Texas men have a big showdown this week against rivals, #19 Texas A&M, and the Texas women have matchups with the SMU women and in Houston for the annual Sprint for the Cure fundraiser meet.
Other Big 12 News
Texas men’s coach Eddie Reese continues to recover well after heart surgery. He is expected to be back at full-strength in time for NCAA”s in March…
The Nebraska women went 2-0 on their road trip, including a 174-126 trouncing of conference opponent Iowa State. The Cornhuskers are finishing strong in their last season before transitioning to the highly-competitive Big Ten with it’s full lineup of 11 women’s teams. With freshmen and sophomores responsible for most of their scoring, they are definitely a team on the rise, and will be hitting a program high in 2012. Freshman Lexie Halberstadt won the women’s 100 free in a very nice time of 52.33.