2015 TEXAS SWIMMING & DIVING HALL OF FAME INVITE
While we didn’t see quite anything quite as historic as Clark Smith‘s 500 free last night, day 3 of the Texas Invite proved plenty exciting in its own right. Arizona, Texas, and USC all won events on the women’s side. There were plenty of close races on the men’s side, as Texas picked up another nation-leading time and earned their first relay win of the meet.
Women 400 IM Finals
Madisyn Cox began the night by winning the 400 IM by a five-second margin with a time of 4:06.55. Teammate Maggie D’Innocenco took second in 4:11.55, overhauling UCLA’s Aryln Upshaw over the final 100. Upshaw finished third in 4:12.04. Harvard’s Sonia Wang (4:13.02), Texas’s Nora McCullagh (4:16.46), and USC’s Destiny Nelson (4:16.73) took 4th-6th. Two Badgers, Danielle Valley (4:16.99) and Jenny Holtzen (4:22.82) rounded out the A-final.
Mens 400 IM Finals
Texas sophomore Jonathan Roberts surged from 4th place to 1st to pick up the win, touching out Arizona’s Nick Thorne, who had the fastest time this morning, by 0.24 seconds, 3:44.24 to 3:44.48. Longhorn Ryan Harty, who won the 200 IM last night with what was then the fastest time in the NCAA this season, was in the lead going into the freestyle leg, but couldn’t quite hang on and finished third place with a time of 3:44.93. Fellow Texas swimmers John Martens and Will Licon, last year’s NCAA champion in this event took the next two places with times of 3:45.13 and 3:45.17, respectively. Wisconsin’s Josh Anderson took 6th (3:51.07), followed by Texas’s Henry Hayden (3:51.83) and Arizona’s Grant Sanders (3:51.96)
Women 100 Fly
Arizona swept the top two spots in this event. Annie Ochitwa took first in 51.35, an NCAA “A” cut, while Mackenzie Rumrill finished second in 52.52. UCLA’s Katie Grover (52.74), Wisconsin’s Dana Grindall (52.03), and USC’s Lucy Worrall (52.95) took the next three spots, with Texas’s Mimi Schneider (53.02), UCLA’s Caroline McTaggert (53.25) and Kendall Crawford of Harvard (54.58) rounding out the field.
Men 100 Fly
Last year’s NCAA champion, Joseph Schooling, scratched the finals after putting down a nation-leading 44.98 time this morning, but last year’s runner-up in this event, Jack Conger, led the Longhorns’ 1-4 sweep tonight with a 45.19, a NCAA “A” cut. Will Glass and Matt Ellis, both of whom were in last year’s NCAA A-final, placed second and third in 46.24 and 46.39, followed by Brett Ringgold‘s 46.82. The other four finalists tonight all hailed from Arizona: Renny Richmond (47.08), Rasmus Skjaerpe (47.41), Mathias Oh (47.49), and Chad Idensohn (47.81). Texas’s John Murray won the B final with a time 46.24, which would have tied him with Glass for second in the A-final.
Women’s 200 Free
Arizona put down the fastest 800 free relay time in the nation Wednesday night, but it was a USC Trojan who won the individual 200 free tonight, Chelsea Chenault. She won by over a second, 1:44.62 to Taylor Shick of Arizona’s 1:45.72. Longhorn Quinn Carrozza placed third in 1:46.34, followed closely by UCLA’s Katie Grover (1:46.43). The other three legs of the aforementioned relay, Cameron McHugh (1:46.89), Daniela Georges (1:47.22) and Bonnie Brandon (1:47.50), took fifth, seventh, and eighth place, respectively. Allie Wooden, another Trojan, placed sixth in 1:47.12.
Men’s 200 Free
Clark Smith put up his second nation-leading time in as many days. Twenty-fours after swimming the 4th-fastest 400 free of all time, Smith swam to a 1:33.36 victory in this event, faster than he swam at NCAA’s last season, and a personal best for him.
However, the runner-up, Texas freshman Townley Haas, was arguably just as impressive. He outsplit Smith over the final 50, but just ran out of pool, touching 0.02 behind Smith in 1:33.38. Haas dropped almost two seconds off his personal best in one day, as he came into today season with a personal best 1:35.19, before going 1:34.56 in prelims, and then tonight’s swim. Haas is only 18, and this swim was third-fastest of all time in the 17-18 age group, knocking a certain Michael Phelps down to fourth all-time in the age group.
Former Longhorn Clay Youngquist, took third in 1:33.98, followed by current Longhorn PJ Dunne (1:35.59). A trio of Wisconsin swimmers took the next three spots: Matthew Hutchin (1:35.95), Brett Pinfold (1:36.23), and Cannon Clifton (1:36.36). Arizona’s Ricky Maestri finished 8th in 1:36.64.
Women’s 100 Breast
For the second event in a row, two USC swimmers went 1-2: Kirsten Vose (59.58) and Riley Scott (59.83). Texas’s Olivia Anderson placed third in 1:00.46, closed followed by Arizona’s Sara Borendame (1:00.52). The remaining spots went to Texas’s Jordan Surhoff (1:00.76), USC’s Kelsey Kafka (1:00.86), Wisconsin’s Anna Meinholz (1:01.02), and Arizona’s Emma Schoettmer (1:01.05).
Men’s 100 Breast
One of this past summer’s breakout stars, Andrew Wilson, who’s training with in Texas while redshirting this year, was the only swimmer under 53 this evening, touching first in 52.61. Arizona’s Gage Crosby just touched out Licon for second, 53.25 to 53.30. Morton Klarskov of USC and Blair Bish of Arizona took fourth and fifth with times of 53.44 and 53.51, respectively. Texas’s Austin Temple matched his prelims time exactly, 53.94, to finish sixth. Arizona’s Matt Salerno (54.22) and USC’s Jonah Hu (54.79) placed seventh and eighth.
Women’s 100 Breast
Hannah Weiss (USC) and Linnea Mack (UCLA) were within 0.10 seconds of each other in this morning’s preliminaries, and stayed neck-and-neck throughout tonight’s race as well. The two were tied after the last turn, but Weiss outsplit Mack by 0.07 over the final 25 yards to win 52.46 to 53.53. It was a close race across the board, as Arizona’s Katrina Konopka (52.67), USC’s Hannah Leach (52.70), and USC’s Anika Apostalon (52.79) taking the 3rd through 5th spots. Continuing the trend of close racing, UCLA’s Madison White and Texas’s Tasija Karosas tied for sixth place at 53.08. Arizona’s Taylor Garcia placed eighth in 54.05.
Men’s 100 Backstroke
BYU’s Jake Taylor has probably been the most dominant non-Longhorn on the men’s side of this meet, and he took this event tonight with a 45.83. John Shebat of Texas placed second in 46.67, a new lifetime best for him. Jack Conger placed third in 46.86, after winning the 100 fly earlier this evening. Arizona’s Chatham Dobbs finished just ahead of Longhorn Harty, 47.01 to 47.08. Wisconsin’s Austin Byrd (47.62), Texas’s Ian Lemaistre (47.80) and Wisconsin’s Brett Pinfold (47.88) finished sixth through eighth.
Women’s 200 Medley Relay
The Arizona women met the NCAA qualifying standard with a 1:37.04 this evening. The team of of Ochitwa (24.09), Borendame (28.11), Rumrill (23.22), and Schick (21.62) finished over a second ahead of the Texas team (1:38.11). Wisconsin (1:38.82) and USC (1:38.92) also finished under 1:39.0.
Men’s 200 Medley Relay
The Texas men may be the consensus top team in the nation, but they’d yet to get a relay win going into their fourth relay of this meet. That finally changed with the final event of the session. BYU’s Taylor put his team in the lead after a 21.56 backstroke split, but Arizona took the lead after Severino’s 24.21 breast leg. The Longhorns pulled ahead on Conger’s 20.72 fly split, and Ringgold anchored in 19.02 to stop the clock at 1:25.73. Arizona finished second in 1:26.41, and BYU took third in 1:27.42.
Wow! Looks like another natty barring injuries and complacency! I think Coach Reese will take care of the complacency piece.
Here are the returning points from last year.
1. Texas, 432.0
2. Cal, 253.5
3. Michigan, 191.5
4. Bama, 176.0.
5. NC State, 174.5
6. USC, 173.5
7. Georgia, 156.0
8. Auburn, 155.0
9. Florida, 151.0
10. Stanford, 65.0.
11. Arizona, 46.5
Haas and Smith are contenders for a spot in the US 4X200 free team.
I cannot agree with you more!
I have followed Haas and Smith since 2010 and always knew they were going to make it to Rio!
So TX returns the vast majority of the NCAA winning team from last year. And they add:
Townley Haas: 4:14/1:33.3 in December
Ryan Harty: 1:43.3/3:44IM, 1:42 back
John Shebat: 46.6 back; 1:46 IM
And others I’m inadvertantly overlooking I’m sure.
Yeah, it’s impressive. How many did Texas graduate last year, again? My first thought is that even if these three new guys qualify for NCAA’s, they might not get to go if Texas is over the cap. I’m sure Haas will go for relay purposes, but then in that case someone from last year’s team might not make it.
I mean, it’s a good problem to have if you’re Eddie Reese, but there might be some very disappointed guys on that team come March.
Texas had three seniors on last year’s NCAA squad: Cooper, Youngquist, and Darmody.
Haas’s and Harty’s times should easily qualify them for NCAA’s (see http://swimswam.com/what-does-it-take-to-qualify-for-the-2016-ncaa-di-championships/).
Haas and Harty are both now securely into NCAA’s and being groomed for multiple finals appearances. Eddie seems to be very high on both of them. It’s some of the older guys who have qualified before but never broken through at ncaa’s who would be on the bubble. Texas also has three pretty sure thing divers to add to the mix. The rich do seem to get richer.
Brock Bonetti posted the second fastest time in the 100 back with a PB of 46.51 winning the consols.
Haas is coming on strong….bright future