The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Georgia
No. 2 Men's Swimming and Diving tops No. 10 Georgia, 169-126
01.11.2014 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Horns pick up two wins apiece from diver Michael Hixon and swimmers John Murray and Will Licon.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas (7-1) won 11 events and emerged with a 169-126 victory over No. 10 Georgia Saturday afternoon at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Freshman diver Michael Hixon swept the diving events and notched a personal best on the three-meter board. UT collected two wins apiece from sophomore swimmer John Murray and freshman Will Licon.
Georgia opened the meet with wins in the 1,650-yard freestyle and the 200 medley relay, the latter coming on a Texas disqualification, but junior Clay Youngquist provided Texas its first win of the day in the 200 freestyle at 1:36.54. Freshman Clark Smith placed second at 1:39.36.
Licon posted the first of his two wins on the day in the 100 breaststroke, where he edged UGA's Nic Fink and prevailed in 55.15, good for a NCAA "B" cut. UT's Imri Ganiel, a 2012 London Olympian for his native Israel, took third in 56.53. Sophomore John Martens took the lead from UGA's Tynan Stewart at the 150-yard mark and took the win in the 200 butterfly at 1:46.42, also a NCAA "B" cut.
Murray posted an impressive double and won the back-to-back 50 and 100 freestyle events. The San Antonio native claimed the 50 freestyle in 20.28, and after an intermission, Murray captured the 100 freestyle in 44.91. Hixon opened the diving session with a win on the one-meter board, where he led a quartet of Longhorns atop the leaderboard with 415.95 points. Sophomore Cory Bowersox, an All-American on one-meter last season, took second with 400.58 points. Freshman Mark Anderson added three points for the Horns with his third-place total of 389.70 points.
Licon went head-to-head with UGA's Fink again in the 200 breaststroke and came away with the win in 1:58.96. Junior Matt Korman, last year's Big 12 champion in the event, took third in 2:03.35.
Perhaps the premier race of the day was the 500 freestyle that featured a slew of Bulldogs All-Americans from UGA's tradition-rich distance program. UT sophomore Sam Lewis trailed Georgia's Will Freeman at the 450-yard mark but out-split Freeman by four-tenths of a second over the final 50 yards to take the win in 4:27.28. Freeman took a close second in 4:27.41.
Junior Tripp Cooper led a one-two Texas finish in the 100 butterfly and claimed the win in 48.21. Sophomore Matt Ellis rounded out the top-two in 48.89.
With the meet victory in hand, Texas declined its points allotment in the 400 freestyle relay, but the Longhorns were victorious in 2:59.92. Hixon wrapped the meet with a win and a personal best of 496.73 points in the three-meter event. Chandler logged an impressive total of 469.43 points for second place.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas assistant coach Kris Kubik
On the win
Georgia is a very well-coached team, and it's a lot of fun to race with them. I think they're very honest in where they are in the season. They train to excel at the conference meet and the NCAA Championships. How we raced today is no reflection on how things will turn out at NCAAs. Based on individual races and based on relays, Georgia is a force to be reckoned with at the NCAA (Championships) level and I think they will be very well represented at the SEC meet.
For us, it was a great opportunity to race many of the same faces we'll see at the NCAA Championships. Some of the races went our way, and some of them went Georgia's way. More importantly, for both teams, in terms of swimming and then racing fast…all of that occurred. But for both teams, there are some things we can improve upon. More specifically for The University of Texas men's team, it's the little parts. It's our breakouts. It's our approach into the walls. It's what we're doing on our stage, and our stage is a 25-yard pool. We need to be better and more crisp when we come off of the walls. We need to be tighter in our streamlines. We need to make sure that from the (backstroke) flags and into the finish that we take care of getting our hand on the wall so we can win those close races when it matters.
On Sam Lewis' come-from-behind win in the 500 freestyle
Sam is growing in our sport right before our eyes. He came out of his freshman year quite successfully but maybe not as happy as he would have liked to have been at the end of the NCAA Championships. He had a phenomenal summer. He has now come to realize that he is in the same breath of an argument for being one of the top racers in our country in the middle-distance events. Today was no different. He was up against some phenomenal competition from Georgia. They are world-renowned (in the distance events) and they're great at the NCAA Championships level. The finish of today's race in terms of what will happen at the end the year…is not necessarily what will happen, but in terms of Sam being up there and racing the big names…it was great for us and it was great for him. We look forward to seeing where he goes from here because he certainly is headed in a good direction.
Texas diving coach Matt Scoggin
For Jan 11, we're diving really well. But, everyone knows they can dive so much better, and that's what we're working for. Everyone's heading into the right direction. It was exciting to see the men step up in the three-meter contest today and put four people over 400 points. Will Chandler's 460-plus point list was pretty-amazing…to see him do a 96 point four-and-a-half somersault and a really good reverse three-and-a-half tuck. Then Mike Hixon, he stepped it up and nailed that last dive in the three-meter. That was a great thing to see from him, especially at this time of year and an early event in the day. There are great things to come, and we're heading in the right direction.
