Each fall Coach Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik host the now famous Eddie Reese Invite for the University of Texas Men’s Swimming Team. Events are odd. Eddie likes to make them odd events to insure his men will swim fast times since they never race those distances. Reese’s Invite is really one long SPEED SET. See the event lineup:
600 IM, 600 free
300 stroke
2000 free
300 IM, 300 free
150 stroke
400 free
100 IM
100 free
50 stroke
Junior Clark Smith‘s 2000 free was, in my opinion, the event of the day. The guy’s a machine. His splits:
1000 split: 8:52+
1650 split: 14:39
2000: 17:44 (1000/1000 was 8:52+/8:51+)
Coach Reese said this after Clark’s 14:39 split at the 1650:
“It gave me chills. And, I’m definitely too old for chills.”
Joseph Schooling‘s 300 free was a 2:29.61
Will Licon‘s 300 breast was 2:57.89.
Jack Conger‘s 300 fly was 2:39:88 and his 150 fly was 1:13.09
Ryan Harty‘s 300 back was 2:40.78.
The Conger v Schooling 50 fly went live last week, but you might like this camera angle on the race. Conger was 20.71 to Schooling’s 20.86.
After seeing this practice, I can’t wait for Men’s NCAA Championships, the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, and the 2016 Olympic Games. Texas will be loading a lot of talent to Rio next summer.
Many thanks to Coach Kris Kubik and Eddie Reese! Based on my experience, The Eddie Reese Invite is the most exciting SPEED SET in swimming practice history.
See the 2014 Eddie Reese Invite below:
Compare Michael McBroom‘s “2014” 2000 free to Clark Smith‘s “2015” 2000 free:
RECENT EPISODES
This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
I’m blown away by that 2,000 by Clark Smith. 14:39 1,650 . . . as a SPLIT . . . in PRACTICE . . . in NOVEMBER . . . from a guy that didn’t even swim the 1,650 at NCAAs last year!
I enjoyed the Eddie Reese invite video last year immensely Mel, and this year is no different. Keep up the good work.
Thank U Braden, so it means that a swimmer can pick a couple of events in the list for a maximal effort and he can also swim others in sub maximal ?
Sorry for not understanding the speed set at all. Someone can explain me if every swimmer swim all events or they choose some of them?
Thanks
Rogerio – I thought the same thing when I first saw the “list of events,” but they just swim a selection. Generally, you swim all events in your primary stroke group, but not sure how hard that’s enforced.
And, of course, I forgot my second all time team, Texas in the Olympic year where Piersol, Hansen and Crocker were 3/4ths an Olympic gold medley relay.
I have to tip the balance to the Stanford team of the ages. The sheer depth of Olympic and Worlds medalists on that team may never be matched.
I can’t wait to see this UT team take its shots at the all time greats. I think this team could be the best UT team ever because of the depth along with Schooling and Conger.
There are so many superlatives that can and should be thrown at Eddie and Chris for what they have done over four decades. But for me the most impressive thing about Eddie and Chris is how they handled adversity. What I call a period of adversity still produced results that, for most teams and coaches would be great finishes at NCAAs.
I’m talking about a few years back when the program seemed to be slipping and people were starting to question Eddie’s continued relevance. But when it could have been over, he did the most amazing thing- something that is really hard for people who get a lot of adulation. He changed how he did some things. He didn’t… Read more »
Mel,
You stirred a delightful pot with that post.
GOAT college teams: well I have to opt out of anything pre-disco. Here is my killer list on the men’s side:
1. Stanford dynasty team which the class of all classes: Moffet, Morales and Kostoff. That team also had Lundberg, Murphy, Mosse and Mortenson. Talk about gold in the water! This team was my GOAT.
Honorable mentions:
1. The UCLA’s last title team led by Stix Ballatore with Bill Barrett and Robin Leamy.
2. Urb’s Michigan team with Dolan & Co. Not because they were the greatest team, but because they won NCAAs with seven guys. No divers, and just SEVEN guys. That is preposterous.
That’s a pretty amazing underdog story about Michigan in 1995 – hard to imagine any team doing that today. Of course having two three-event winners helps. Some enterprising journalist should collect an oral history of that team.
2009 Auburn
2009 Auburn=epitome of suit era
…yeah, I was 13-16 yrs old when that Stanford crew was kicking-butt. I followed them closely.
Stix? I always forget about that era. (I trained with Stix for a season in ’93. Loved that guy.)
Michigan w/Dolan & Co. Very true.
Still UT is impressive right now. If they improve on what they did last year, this is the story of ’16 college-wise.
What events did schooling swim? Heard 300 free and saw 50 fly?
I think conger went all fly
They each picked one stroke for the invite and did the set.
I believe Conger and Schooling did two though