The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Georgia
No. 8 Women's Swimming and Diving falls to No. 4 Georgia, 157.5-142.5
01.11.2014 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Senior swimmer Lily Moldenhauer leads the Horns with a pair of victories.
AUSTIN, Texas – Senior swimmer Lily Moldenhauer registered two of Texas' six victories on the day as the eighth-ranked Longhorns suffered a 157.5-142.5 loss to defending NCAA champion Georgia Saturday afternoon at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas collected its first win of the day in the 200-yard medley relay, where Moldenhauer, junior Gretchen Jaques, freshman Brynne Wong and senior Ellen Lobb finished in 1:40.01. Georgia led at the 100-yard mark before Wong before closed the gap and pulled Texas slightly ahead at 150 yards. Lobb split 22.29 seconds on the relay's freestyle leg to give UT the win by over four-tenths of a second.
UGA won the 1,650 freestyle and the 200 freestyle, but the Horns took second, third and fourth in the 200 freestyle to keep the score close. Senior Alex Hooper took second in 1:48.55 while senior Sam Tucker placed third in 1:48.81. Moldenhauer teamed with freshman Tasija Karosas to lead a one-two Texas showing in the 100 backstroke, where they topped UGA's Olivia Smoliga, the world champion in the event last summer. Moldenhauer took the win in 53.32 and Karosas took second in 54.37.
Lobb rode the wave from her 200 medley relay anchor swim and won the 50 freestyle in 22.75. Wong tied for third at 23.39. UGA's Laura Ryan narrowly won the one and three-meter diving events, but Texas picked up significant points from Maren Taylor, Emma Ivory-Ganja and Meghan Houston on both boards. Taylor took second in the one-meter event with 316.65 points, less than three points behind Ryan. Taylor added a second-place total of 371.10 points on the three-meter board.
Karosas registered an impressive swim in the 200 backstroke against UGA's Melanie Margalis and came away with the win in 1:55.84. Margalis narrowed the gap coming off of the final wall but Karosas held on for the win. UT added second and third-place finishes from Jaques and freshman Madisyn Cox in the 200 breaststroke. Jaques took a close second behind UGA's Annie Zhu in 2:14.00.
Moldenhauer completed her impressive double with a winning mark of 54.26 in the 100 butterfly. Wong added a third-place time of 54.73. Georgia clinched the meet victory by way of its first, third and fifth-place finishes in the 200 IM, where Margalis prevailed in 1:57.67. UT's Cox took second in 2:00.24. Texas' Hooper, Karosas, Moldenhauer and Tucker finished off the meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:20.39
Texas hosts TCU for its Senior Day meet on Friday, Jan. 24.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas head coach Carol Capitani
I'm really, really proud of the way we raced Georgia today. I told the team before the meet that I cared how many points we put on the board, but as long as we raced tough, we would be proud of them at the end. We faced the best team in the country and the defending national champion.
We started off the meet by winning the first relay, and we won the last relay. I think we set the tone, in terms of racing tough today. The swimmer of the meet for us was probably Lily Moldenhauer. She won the 100 back and the 100 fly, and she was part of those winning relays. I think that was huge. My hat is off to her. She has really come around. Ellen's (Lobb) 50 free was big-time. We missed her all fall and it's great to have her back. She raced tough. Brynne Wong, as a freshman, stood up and really raced tough. The divers were very well-matched today. If they didn't win, we knew they were going to go 2-3-4. We're really proud of the divers. Tasija Karosas' 200 backstroke was beautiful. She went stroke-to-stroke with (UGA's) Melanie Margalis. She is swimming with a lot of confidence, and that's great to see. (Assistant coach) Roric Fink said it well. He said, "I think that's as much fun as we can have while not winning the meet." He was right. We're really proud of their efforts.
On how the challenging dual-meet schedule prepares the team for the remainder of the season
We only have two more dual meets left…when we host TCU and go to Arizona. We have a couple of more opportunities to get sharp before the conference meet. When you look at our dual-meet schedule, you'll see that it is the toughest schedule in the country. That's the way we want to be known…as a team that will take on everyone. And, we have to race the best at the end of the year, too. I think it prepares us really well. I think that we know we can stand up against anyone on any given day. As long as we give ourselves a fighting chance to be in it, then we're fine.
Texas diving coach Matt Scoggin
On the diving performances
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.
