2019 WOMEN’S BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 27th – Saturday, March 2nd
- Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Texas men (22x) & Texas women (6x) (results)
- Live results (coming sooon)
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- Big 12 Women’s Record Book
- Psych Sheet
Texas is poised for a 7th consecutive Big 12 title after finishing the regular season 8-0. The Longhorns are projected to win the meet by 300+ points according to the current Swimulator projections. The rest of the field is actually a bit more spread out than it was last year, where there was a tight race for 2nd going into the meet. Kansas appears to be the heavy favorite for 2nd place this time around. Reminder: the Big 12 Championships only scores through through the top 16 places, whereas many other major conferences score through the top 24.
Texas didn’t actually graduate many swimmers at all from last year, with the most noteworthy losses being Rebecca Millard and Sam Sutton. Additionally, Kaitlin Harty has left the program and is seeking to transfer elsewhere. In all, the losses aren’t too much for the Longhorns to be able to overcome with this crop of freshmen. Millard was the heaviest loss in terms of team points, having won the 50 free, placed 2nd in the 100 free, and competed on all 5 Texas relays. Harty came in 3rd in the 100 back and 4th in the 200 back. Sutton’s did not score any points.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday (2/27):
- 200 Medley Relay
- Men’s 1-meter diving
- 800 Free Relay
Thursday (2/28):
- 500 Free
- 200 IM
- 50 Free
- Women’s 1-meter diving
- 400 Medley Relay
Friday (3/1):
- Women’s 3-meter diving
- 400 IM
- 100 Fly
- 200 Free
- 100 Breast
- 100 Back
- Men’s 3-meter diving
- 200 Free Relay
Saturday (3/2):
- Women’s platform diving
- 200 Back
- 200 Free
- 1650 Free
- 200 Breast
- 200 Fly
- Women’s platform diving
- 400 Free Relay
STARS
Iowa State – Emily Haan (freshman backstroker), Anna Andersen (junior sprint freestyler), Haley Ruegemer (senior distance freestyler/IM’er), Lehr Thorson (sophomore breaststroker), Lucia Rizzo (freshman freestyler/flyer) – Anna Andersen is a solid contender in the 50-200 frees, and freshman Elynn Tan will provide some backup for her. Ruegemer has had a good season both in the long freestyles and IMs, setting her up nicely to be competitive.
Kansas – Jenny Nusbaum (junior distance freestyler), Lauryn Parrish (sophomore freestyler/backstroker), Crissie Blomquist (sophomore freestyler), Haley Bishop (junior freestyler/flyer), Vicky Xu (senior diver), Kate Steward (freshman breaststroker) –Kansas has plenty of swimming talent to take note of this season, but the real draw to this team was the 2nd semester addition of diver Vicky Wu. Wu, in her first 2 NCAA meets, beet the defending NCAA 3 meter champion, and set a new conference record. She provides an unforeseen boost to ther Jayhawks that should really help establish them as the clear 2nd place team.
TCU – Emily Visagie (freshman IMer/breaststroker), Alexandra Robertson (senior IM/distance), Kaeleigh Rice (sophomore IM/backstroker) – Visagie is currently leading the IM and breaststroke groups, and could really make an impact in her freshman campaign. Rice nd Robertson are right behind, providing some IM depth in what might be the team’s best events.
Texas – Claire Adams (junior backstroker), Efie Pfeifer (sophomore IM’er/distance freestyler), Grace Ariola (freshman sprint freestyler/backstroker/flyer), Joanna Evans (senior distance freestyler), Lauren Case (junior butterflier/freestyler), Remedy Rule (senior butterflier), Julia Cook (freshman sprint freestyler/backstroker) – First of all, this is a star-studded team. The names listed above just scratch the surface of what Texas has to offer. When it comes to replacing Rebecca Millard, the Longhorns really couldn’t have hope for a better duo than Julia Cook and Grace Ariola. The pair of freshmen are were the fastest 50 freestyler (Ariola) and 100 freestyler (Cook) in the 2018-2019 class of recruits. Not to mention, the pair has virtually the same strengths and versatility as Claire Adams, opening up a lot of options for the filling out the roster evenly. Remedy Rule has had a great season, and will look to capitalize on her fast Fall butterfly times.
West Virginia – Morgan Bullock (junior flier/IMer), Julia Nilton (junior sprinter), Julia Calcutt (senior diver), Emma Harris (senior breaststroker/freestyler) – Bullock has had a great season and will look to be in multiple A finals this week. Calcutt scored big diving points for the Mountaineers last season, and is in position to repeat.
SHOWDOWNS
50 FREE
Texas has probably the best sprint group in the NCAA. This year they are spearheaded by Grace Ariola, who has already hit the A cut and tied the conference record mid-season in 21.73. She’ll be racing teammates Julia Cook and Anelise Diener, both of whom have been 22.3 or faster this season.
100 FREE
Texas is even stronger in the 100 free, where they have the fastest 6 swimmers in the conference so far this season, all of whom have been under 50 seconds. Claire Adams leads this group, having already been a 47.3. Cook and Ariola have been low 48s, while Diener and Brooke Hansen have been under 49.
100 BACK
This will be another Texas showdown. Adams, Cook and Ariola are the 3 fastest 100 backstrokers in the conference by far, all having been under 52 seconds this year. This will be a threeway showdown assuming Ariola swims the 100 back, since she could just as well swim the 100 fly, where she currently has the 2nd fastest time on the team this year.
200 IM
This is an event where West Virginia’s Morgan Bullock was the runner-up last year. It should be a good race between Evie Pfeifer, Brooke Hansen, Nora McCullagh, and Bullock.
SELECTIONS
Texas isn’t at any real risk of losing the title here, barring an absolute catastrophe. Kansas could make this a closer meet than expected though, thanks to Vicky Xu cutting into Texas’ diving advantage. While it’s highly unlikely they’ll threaten the Longhorns at all, they could really separate themselves from the teams below. My predictions are below, and the Swimulator projections are directly under.
PREDICTED TEAM STANDINGS
- Texas
- Kansas
- West Viriginia
- Iowa State
- TCU
PROJECTED SCORES (SWIMULATOR)
| Texas | 1005 |
| Kansas | 703.5 |
| West Virginia | 450 |
| Iowa State | 419.5 |
| TCU | 227 |
Will Texas ever join the SEC?
“ever”? Who knows. But they have no financial incentive to leave the Big 12 anytime soon. The conference is making record revenues year-after-year, only has to split it 10 ways, and Texas gets the biggest piece of that pie (plus $15 million/year in Longhorn Network revenue).
For swimming, they just don’t fit with these other teams. They know that their conference meet is not competitive, and that’s why they suited up at the NC State dual meet.
Conference realignment is one of my favorite pastimes. Just know that if/when the time comes, football will drive 95% of it and basketball the other 5%. Olympic sports are just along for the ride. I don’t think any Texas swimming fans like the total lack of competition at Big 12s. It is what it is and there’s nothing swammers can do to change that.
Not until their football team won’t get shellacked by half a dozen teams.
The competition for the Texas girls will be the other Texas girls. They will swim fast but I’ll bet they don’t go crazy fast because they will save the big taper and shave for the NCAA’s. It might be tough to gauge how fast they will really go in March.
maybe… but it seems to happen more often than you would expect that Texas swimmers (usually the women) who are already qualified from mid-season invite swim faster at Big 12s and falter at NCAAs. whole different level of pressure and swimming is weird like that.
There are still a good batch of Texas gals who haven’t made an invite time, but are close. Those individuals will need to pull out the stops to make it. Evans, Pfieffer, Adams, Rule, Ariola, Cook are probably in.
Carozza probably in 200 back, Case probably in 200 fly, Lohman probably in 100 breast, Diener may be on bubble with 50/100 free, dropping a tenth or so wouldn’t hurt. Will be on relays. Others like Anderson, Hansen, McCulloch, Reese and some others have chances with some time drop…They can do it, but can’t screw around and will need to go full monty.