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TCU’s David Ekdahl is Big 12’s First Non-Longhorn Diving Champion in a Decade

2022 BIG 12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The University of Texas swimming & diving team is already feeling the loss of their star diver Jordan Windle, who has been suspended indefinitely while under investigation by the FBI on allegations that he exchanged nude photographs with at least one minor.

TCU diver David Ekdahl won the 1-meter springboard event on Wednesday with a score of 388.50. That put him about 29 points ahead of Texas’ Andrew Harness (359.15) as the Longhorns finished 2-3-4-5.

The Big 12 only has three men’s swimming & diving teams at present, and Windle has been the dominant performer to date. He has won the last four conference titles on platform, three of the last four on 3-meter, and was the 2021 champion on 1-meter.

For perspective, his winning score in 2021 was 469.85.

Ekdahl’s win is the Horned Frogs’ first-ever Big 12 title winner in diving, and just their third men’s event winner in the conference since joining before the 2012-2013 season. The other two were Cooper Robinson, who won the 200 back in 2013, and Ford Story, who won the 100 breast in 2016.

Texas has dominated the diving since Missouri and Texas A&M, two very strong diving programs, left the conference for the SEC in the same year that TCU joined. The last diving winner not from Texas was Missouri’s David Bonuchi on 3-meter in 2012.

In this 1 meter event, in fact, Texas had the minority of titles until the big shakeup: from 1997 through 2011, Texas A&M won the title 8 times, Nebraska won it twice (they no longer have a program), and Texas won it four times. The same was true of the 3 meter springboard.

Ekdahl is a freshman diver from Sweden who is a Swedish Junior National Champion. He finished 9th on 1-meter at the 2021 World Junior Diving Championships for his home country.

Texas sophomore Noah Duperre, who was 2nd on 1-meter behind Windle at last year’s NCAA Championship meet, also didn’t compete on Wednesday. Duperre dove at the team’s last dual meet three weeks ago against SMU, but Texas confirmed that he has withdrawn from the meet for unspecified health reasons.

With Windle’s collegiate career likely over, the Longhorns will be counting on Duperre in March to hold their significant diving advantage over their top competition in the team race from Cal, Florida, and NC State.

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Richard Sybesma
2 years ago

Congrats to TCU and David Ekdahl on being the Big 12 Champion in one meter diving.

diver
2 years ago

I think if Duperre competes at Nc’s, along with Harness, McCourt and Borowski, Texas looks to get 40-45 points.
Duperre competes on all boards and should score around 30. The other guys should be able to score 15. That would be a 30 point hickey from last year when Windle scored 50 by himself and Texas got 70+ diving points. The situation I described for Texas diving at this years Nc’s is optimal. But of course stuff can happen. The point is, Texas is going to have to be on it swimming wise to get another title.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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