The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Invitational Finals
Relay finish caps off strong day for Texas Men's Swimming and Diving
12.02.2011 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Dec. 2, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas -- The University of Texas men's swimming and diving squad sits in first place with 1272 points after the second day of competition.
The Longhorns hold a lead over Southern California (977.5) and Wisconsin (401) going into Saturday.
The night concluded with an exciting first place finish for the Longhorns in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Texas A squad's final swimmer, Kyle McNeilis, out-touched Southern California's Mike Godbe after a hard-fought, neck-in-neck length of the pool. Neil Caskey, Dax Hill and Clay Youngquist made up the rest of Texas A and they finished with a time of 6:22.94. Southern Cal was close behind with a second place time of 6:23.26.
"My teammates did a great job of putting me in a good place to win it," said McNeilis. "We have a great training group and Texas is known for its 200 freestylers. One of the things we work on in practice is being Texas tough and our mentality is to never lose the last 25 and that is what I was focusing on the whole way. I saw my teammates cheering like crazy and there was no way I was going to let them down."
"That was what we call a fun relay," said head coach Eddie Reese. "It was a fast relay and everybody had swum once or twice previously in the night. To line up and go that fast is really impressive. Clay Youngquist split 1:34.5 and Kyle McNeilis split 1:35.4. For this time of year we have never had anybody do anything like that."
Texas B, comprised of James Feigen, Bobby Button, Matthew Belecanech and Keith Murphy, finished fifth in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:37.53.
The Longhorns' diving contingent set the bar high for the evening session with three competitors finishing in the top four of the 3-meter springboard event. Senior Matt Cooper secured the top spot with a score of 466.80. In the preliminary round on Friday morning, Cooper scored a personal high-score of 476.20.
"Drew (Livingston) and I, just like the prelims, were back-and-forth with the lead," said Cooper. "In the finals you get all this adrenaline going and it was really fun to compete. I am surprising myself at how consistent I have been. I feel like I am executing some of the bigger dives that I normally don't do as well."
Rounding out Texas' top diving finishes was senior Drew Livingston, who finished in second with a score of 452.60 and sophomore Will McCraney, who posted a score of 344.00, which landed him in fourth place.
In the first swimming event of the evening, the 200-yard medley relay, the Longhorns' top finishers placed fifth with a time of 1.27.28. This team consisted of Cole Cragin, Eric Friedland, James Feigen and Dax Hill. Close behind with a time of 1.28.28 and finishing sixth, was a Texas squad made up of Patrick Murphy, Matt Hoyland, Tripp Cooper and Charlie Moore.
In the 400-yard individual medley, Texas' top finish came from junior Austin Surhoff. He placed third with a time of 3:49.25. Finishing in fourth place, with a time of 3:49.57, was junior Nick D'Innocenzo. Timothy Johnson also appeared in the finals for the Longhorns, finishing sixth with a time of 3:50.17.
Junior Dax Hill secured a second place finish for the Longhorns in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:34.30. Just behind him, in third place, was freshman Clay Youngquist, who swam a 1:35.30.
Only one Texas swimmer, senior Eric Friedland, appeared in the finals heat of the 100-yard breaststroke. Friedland finished eighth with a time of 54.93.
In the B Final of the 100-yard backstroke, Texas swimmers posted the top two times. Freshman Kip Darmody swam a 47.83 and sophomore Patrick Murphy finished with a 47.91.
The Texas Invitational will wrap up on Saturday. The morning prelims will begin at 10 a.m. with the finals to start at 6 p.m. Platform diving will start at 12:30 p.m.
