The Texas Longhorns showed off their dominance in a dual meet with the visiting Auburn Tigers in Austin, Texas Thursday night. The Texas men posted a 156-136 in an exciting battle against the Tigers. The Longhorn women held a commanding lead to reach a 171-121 win over Auburn, sweeping the events. Full results can be found here.
There was some exciting relay action on the men’s side, with Texas taking the 200 medley relay and Auburn firing back with a win in the 200 free relay. The Texas medley relay of John Shebat (22.35), Will Licon (24.71), Joseph Schooling (20.73), and Jack Conger (19.44) did just enough to hold off a hard charging Auburn team, anchored by Peter Holoda in a blistering 19.14. In the 200 free relay, Michael Duderstadt (20.46), Holoda (19.68), Kyle Darmody (19.90), and Zach Apple (19.85) combined to grab the win.
Individually, Texas had several multiple event winners. Clark Smith posted a 9:11.24 in the 1000 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep by Texas, just ahead of teammates Townley Haas (9:11.78) and Sam Lewis (9:12.70). Smith followed that up with a 500 free in 4:24.07 through a tight race with Auburn’s Hugo Morris (4:24.79).
Ryan Harty swept the backstroke events, winning the 100 back in 47.37 over teammate John Sherbat (48.41). He edged out Joe Patching in the 200 back, 1:42.86 to 1:43.45. Harty’s teammate Will Licon grabbed wins in the breaststroke events, with a 54.05 in the 100 and a 1:57.14 in the 200 to beat out Auburn’s Michael Duderstadt, who swam to a 54.18 in the 100 and a 2:02.04 in the 200.
Auburn’s Peter Holoda put on a good showing for the team, taking wins in the 50 (20.10) and 100 (44.51) freestyles. Other event winners for the Tigers included Joe Patching in the 200 IM with a 1:46.90 and Luis Martinez in the 100 fly with a 47.45.
Notably, the Longhorn’s Jack Conger and Joseph Schooling weren’t entered in many events. Schooling swam only on the relay, while Conger won the 200 fly in a quick 1:44.22 as his only individual event.
On the women’s side, Longhorns’ freshman Joanna Evans got the ball rolling for Texas early, taking her first of two wins in the 1000 free in 9:43.81 over Auburn’s Ashley Neidigh (9:45.50) and Erin Falconer (10:00.75). Evans then went on to win the 500 free with a 4:46.53.
Rebecca Millard won two close races to take double wins for the Longhorns in the 50 and 100 freestyles. She narrowly out touched Allyx Purcell in the 50, 23.04 to 23.06, and Aly Tetzloff in the 100, 50.01 to 50.12.
In the backstroke events, Tasija Karosas completed the sweep. She posted a 53.61 to win the 100 back over Auburn’s Jill Vitarius before also claiming the 200 back title in 1:55.86. Remedy Rule took another stroke sweep for Texas in the 100 fly (54.37) and 200 fly (1:57.79).
NCAA All-American Madisyn Cox was a triple event winner at this meet. She took the 100 breast (1:01.10) and 200 breast (2:11.11) before finishing off the meet with a 1:58.35 win in the 200 IM.
Looks like the virus hit Schooling the hardest. Didn’t even swim against #3 Georgia, and Horns routed Bulldogs, anyway. In Georgia’s defense, they did swim Friday instead of Thursday. (Horns vs. Auburn)
It was mentioned in the article about some guys not swimming much or at all during the meet. Around 8 guys sick due to a bug spreading through the team. Many open lanes competing for Texas in the meet as guys couldn’t go and scratched and most relays were scratched. Texas easily fields 4 deep relays and never had more than 2 in the water. With a short 2 day turn around I think you could see an “upset” tomorrow against Georgia even if guys who couldn’t swim this meet can swim Saturday. Will be interesting to see if the sick guys have anything in the tank after being out.
Kind of hits me now how great Texas is when you read their results and see a 1:44 200 fly and a 1:57 200 breast from an early January meet and think, ‘meh, whatever. Maybe there was a flu bug going around. Yawn.’
Wasn’t the flu but there was a virus.
If you watched the live feed, you would have probably realized that guy wasn’t going very hard
Anyone else read the 1000 free result and immediately think “Katie Ledecky beat Clark Smith by 12 seconds!”?
Clark Smith also went a 8:33 earlier in the season.
somehow, I doubt that guy was trying very hard
No, I’m not saying that Clark Smith went as hard as he could, that he was tapered, that he could never beat Katie one on one, or anything else. I’m just saying – it’s pretty cool that Katie went faster than one of the best college distance swimmers.