Big 12 Women’s Swimmer of the Week: Karlee Bispo (Texas)
Big 12 Men’s Swimmer of the Week: Nick D’Innocenzo (Texas)
Texas Knocks off Texas A&M
The Texas Longhorn women continued their early-season hot streak by knocking off their big rivals, Texas A&M 163-137.
Texas was put on the back of their three stars in this meet. Laura Sogar, Leah Gingrich, and Karlee Bispo combined for 7 out of Texas’ 9 individual event wins, and in the NCAA dual meet format, event wins are just about all that counts.
Sogar was again impressive in the breaststroke events. Though her 200, at 2:11, was well off her season-best time (though still a great time early in the season), her 100 time of 1:01.25 was very close. A&M also got a great breaststroke performance from freshman Breeja Larson. Larson, who was never faster than a 1:02.5 in high school, went her second 1:01 of the season this year at 1:01.88 to take the runner-up spot.
Gingrich won both the 500 and 1000 freestyles in what was considered a bit of an upset against A&M’s daunting distance crew. Her 9:53.99 in the 1000 is ranked third-best in the nation, and is her best of the season by 5 seconds. Bispo took victories in the 50 and 200 frees, as well as the 200 IM.
Texas A&M’s Caroline McElhany swam a very light schedule in her first meet against her former Longhorn teammates, only going in the 200 fly and a B relay. Her 200 fly time was slightly disappointing, as she added nearly 4 seconds to her mark from last week’s dual against Houston. Add to that and the still-missing star freshman Camille Adams, and A&M was without a good portion of its butterfly group. They were not to be overcome in the 200, however, as junior Rita Madrano put up a great mark of 1:57.04, a top-5 time in the country, to win ahead of Gingrich (1:57.27). Once A&M is back to full strength, their 200 fly crew might be the best in the country behind USC.
Texas A&M has to be encouraged as well by the performance of their divers. They knew that Jaele Patrick, who was 3rd in both the 1 and 3-meters at NCAA’s last year, was going to be good. The big surprise is how well their young sophomore Janie Potvin dove in two second-place finishes. In what is a rebuilding year on the blocks for the Aggies, their divers could be good for as many as 60 NCAA points on the boards, which would be huge for this program.
Both teams take a break before heading to big invites, with A&M traveling to Georgia Tech the weekend of November 11th, and Texas hosting their annual Texas Invitational the first week of December.
Other Meets
Missouri’s Dominique Bouchard continued her hot-streak in sweeping the 100 and 200 back in a tri-meet with Arkansas and South Carolina. Arkansas sophomore Chelsea Franklin breaks UA pool record in the 100 free at 9:50.12: the second best time in the nation. South Carolina’s Courtney Forcucci continued her undefeated dual-meet streak as a Gamecock on the 3-meter (7-0). Final scores Arkansas 181-Missouri 119, Missouri 175-South Carolina 125, and Arkansas 194-South Carolina 106…South Carolina’s Bobby Cave swam a season best in the 100 breast of 56.56 as the South Carolina men moved to 3-0 for the first time since 1997. Missouri’s Jordan Hawley swept the freestyle events. Final score South Carolina 181.5 Missouri 118.5…Read about Texas’ win over Michigan and Indiana on our Big Ten Recap…