The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2024
- Class:
- 1992
A 27-time All-American and seven-time NCAA Relay Champion, Julie Cooper Bliemel was part of a truly dominant era for the Texas Women’s Swimming and Diving program in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of the nation’s top freestyle sprinters, she helped lead Texas to a pair of NCAA Championships in 1990 and 1991 and NCAA runner-up showings in 1989 and 1992 as the Longhorns finished first or second in all four of her NCAA Championship appearances under head coach Mark Schubert. Cooper Bliemel was a key factor in a four-year stretch of Longhorn dominance in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays at the NCAA Championship meet. Beginning with swimming a leg on the American and NCAA-record setting and title winning 200 (1:28.90) and 400 free relays (3:15.38) as a freshman in 1989, she was part of the UT quartet that won the 200 free relay every year from 1989-92 and claimed victory in the 400 free relay three times (1989-90, 1992). All totaled, Cooper Bliemel was a member of 13 relay squads that finished among the top three at the NCAA Championships. Individually she was a seven-time first-team All-American in the 50 and 100 freestyle events with a pair of career-best third-place showings in the 50 free. She also twice earned honorable mention All-America accolades in the 200 free. Texas hosted the NCAA Championships her sophomore year in 1990, and Cooper Bliemel was a critical factor in the Longhorns narrowly edging Stanford by 9.5 points for the team title. That year, she posted a pair of top-four finishes (third in 50 free, fourth in 100 free) individually while also swimming legs on the victorious 200 and 400 free relays, runner-up 200 medley relay and third-place 800 free relay. She finished fourth in the 50 free, sixth in the 100 free and was a part of the winning 200 and 400 free relay squads in helping the Horns win the 1991 NCAA Championship. As a senior and competing at nationals in Austin once again in 1992, Cooper Bliemel played a key role on four relays that finished in the top three at the NCAA Championships, winning the 200 free relay, finishing second in the 400 free and 400 medley relays, and third in the 200 medley relay, while earning All-American honors in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. She capped her illustrious career as a 23-time first-team All-American and four-time Honorable Mention All-American. Texas won the Southwest Conference Championship in each of her four years on the Forty Acres. Cooper Bliemel claimed the 50 free individual title as a senior in 1992 and swam on 11 SWC title-winning relays in those four years. Her success extended to the international swimming scene, too, as a three-time member of the USA National Team. She swam a leg on Team USA’s gold medal-winning 400-meter free relay at the 1991 FINA World Championships while also finishing eighth individually in the 100-meter freestyle at that event. Cooper was part of Team USA’s winning 400-meter free relay at the 1989 Pan Pacific Games. In 1992, she was honored as a CoSIDA second-team Academic All-American for her success in the pool and the classroom. A 1992 graduate of UT with a bachelor’s degree in Finance (B.B.A.) with honors, Cooper Bliemel was born in Berlin, Germany but grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
