Texas Coach Carol Capitani Puts Big 12 Championships Into Perspective, Is Ready For NCAA Championships

2013 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships as reported by Catherine Wagner, a junior at the University of Texas.

Carol Capitani Named 2013 Big 12 Coach of the Year!

Women 200 Backstroke

Sarah Denninghoff completed a sweep of the backstroke events with a victory in the 200 in 1:53.21. This swim moves Denninghoff to 10^th in the country this year. Iowa State’s Bre Loeschke, following up a great prelims swim, finished second in 1:56.90. Jess Guro from Texas was third in 1:57.34.

Women 100 Freestyle

The 100 freestyle involved yet another 1-2-3 sweep for the Texas Longhorns. Samantha Tucker seems to have really found her stride this season as she came away with the victory in 48.99. Alex Hooper (49.21) and Ellen Lobb (49.32) finished in second and third.

Women 1650 Freestyle

Another swim and another win for West Virginia’s Rachael Burnett. She was trailing Kelsey LeNeave of Texas for the first part of the race, but really came on strong after the first 500. Burnett’s final time of 16:04.26 is 13^th in the country this year. LeNeave was second in 16:14.36, followed by teammate Kaitlin Pawlowicz in third with a 16:20.44.

Women 200 Breaststroke

Texas Longhorn Laura Sogar was absolutely dominant in her final event of the meet, finishing first in 2:05.25. She faded slightly on the final 50, but with a little more rest should definitely be able to dip under 2:05. Her time would have won the SEC Championships last weekend against a very tough field, so Sogar has a lot to be pleased with from her swim. This is going to be a great race at NCAA’s with the likes of Sogar, Caitlin Leverenz, Breeja Larson, Annie Zhu, Micah Lawrence… and the list goes on. Gretchen Jaques and Skylar Smith, both of Texas, were second and third in times of 2:11.47 and 2:12.75.

Women 200 Butterfly

West Virginia and TCU found themselves caught in a very tight team battle this evening. West Virginia really came through in this 200 butterfly with a 1-2 finish led my Mandie Nugent in 1:55.82. Teammate Julie Ogden was second (1:58.71) while Ali Bleasdell of TCU was third in 1:59.12.

Women 400 Free Relay

The Texas women swimmers completed a sweep of the relays by finishing first in 3:15.83, slightly faster than their performance from Nationals. The quartet of Alex Hooper, Samantha Tucker, Ellen Lobb, and Sarah Denninghoff were dominant throughout the race, leading from the beginning and never looking back. The battle for second was between Kansas, TCU, and West Virginia. Their final times were separated by only 7 tenths of a second, with Kansas taking the silver courtesy of a 49.71 anchor leg from senior Brooke Brull. In addition, all West Virginia needed to do to beat TCU in the team race was to beat them on this relay, and they did just that by finishing third in 3:21.36. TCU was fourth in 3:21.96. In the team race for second, West Virginia ended up beating TCU by just 2 points… and this relay was the deciding factor.

Final Team Scores:

Women

1. University of Texas              1051

2. West Virginia University          576

3. Texas Christian University        574

4. University of Kansas            540.5

5. Iowa State University           486.5

Women’s Swimmer of the Meet: 

Rachael Burnett