The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Swimming and Diving wraps up competition at Texas Invitational
12.04.2004 | Women's Swimming and Diving
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sophomores Garrett Weber-Gale (Fox Point, Wis.) and Elizabeth Tinnon (Bowling Green, Ky.), junior Elizabeth Wycliffe (Kingston, Ontario) and seniors Nathan O'Brien (Sammamish, Wash.) and Sarah Wanezek (Brookfield, Wis.) all turned in NCAA Automatic qualifying times in their respective individual events and The University of Texas men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up the 2004 Texas Invitational in impressive fashion, earning the overall team titles in the men's and women's competition on Saturday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center.
All said, a total of seven Texas swimmers earned NCAA Automatic qualifying standards at the three-day invite. Three Texas men - senior Daniel DiToro (Scottsdale, Ariz.), O'Brien and Weber Gale - hit automatic standards in three individual events over at the meet, while four swimmers on the women's side posted automatic qualifying cuts in seven individual events.
O'Brien clocked his NCAA automatic cut with a second-place time of 1:43.81 in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing behind Michigan's Chris DeJong. Meanwhile, in the men's 100-yard freestyle, Weber-Gale booked his ticket to the NCAA Championships with a second-place performance and automatic qualifying time of 43.53, just behind Arizona's Simon Burnett, who won the event in 42.96. Burnett's performance came on the heels of his record-setting 200-yard freestyle on Friday, in which Burnett shattered Matt Biondi's 17-year old record of 1:33.03, set in April of 1987 here in Austin.
DiToro rounded out the men posting automatic standards, with his time of 46.74 in the preliminaries of the 100 butterfly on Thursday.
For the women, Wanezek led with automatic qualifying performances in two events - the 100 fly and 50 free - after Friday's finals and posted her third of the meet with a time of (49.16) in the 100-yard freestyle on Saturday.
Tinnon and McGregory clocked two automatic times apiece. Tinnon, an NCAA All-America Honorable Mention in both breaststrokes at the 2004 NCAA Championships, won Friday's 100-yard breaststroke with an NCAA 'A' mark of 1:00.75 and followed that finish with a third-place performance and her second automatic qualifying time (2:12.67) of the meet in the 200-yard breaststroke. McGregory, who clocked 54.21 in the 100 backstroke on Friday, added a second automatic qualifying time of 1:56.13 to place fourth in a fast 200 back event on Saturday. Wycliffe also finished with NCAA automatic standards in that event, clocking 1:57.94 to place fifth.
The final diving event of the meet was the platform, which witnessed Texas post strong performances for both teams. Freshman Brian Smith (Carrolltown, Texas) and sophomore Matt Bisordi (San Mateo, Calif.), who won the one-meter dive on Thursday, finished second and third with marks of 426.20 and 406.95, respectively. SMU's Beau Sydes won the platform dive for the men with a final score of 496.60. For the women, Texas senior Monica Maxwell (San Jose, Calif.) took third with 382.85. Hawaii's Rui Wang (512.10) and Arizona State's Trish Tumlinson (471.80) took first and second in the platform.
