The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Championships
No. 6 Women’s Swimming and Diving Preview: Big 12 Championships
02.20.2014 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns looking for second consecutive Big 12 team title and 12th overall.
WHAT: No. 6 Texas (9-3) hosts the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships.
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 26 through Saturday, March 1 (complete schedule below)
WHERE: Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center – Austin, Texas
ADMISSION:
Finals sessions: $10 adults/$6 youth
Prelims sessions: $6 adults/$4 youth
LIVE RESULTS: HERE
PARKING: Spectators are encouraged to park in Manor Garage (paid parking), which is located on Robert Dedman Dr. between Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and Mike A. Myers Stadium, north of the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Visitors who park in surface lots requiring a valid UT parking permit risk receiving a citation.
Trinity Garage, located across Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. from the swim center, is an available parking option. However, fans attending the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships are encouraged to use Manor Garage, given the likelihood of congestion at Trinity Garage due to the Texas-Baylor men's basketball game (Wednesday, 8 p.m.) and the Texas UIL Girls Basketball State Tournament (all day Thursday through Saturday) nearby at the Erwin Center.
FULL SCHEDULE
Wednesday, Feb. 26 (all times Central)
4:30 p.m.
Men's 1-meter diving (prelims)
6 p.m. (finals)
200 medley relay
Men's 1-meter diving
800 freestyle relay
Thursday, Feb. 27
10 a.m. (prelims)
500 freestyle
200 IM
50 freestyle
1 p.m. (prelims)
Women's 1-meter diving
6 p.m. (finals)
500 freestyle
200 IM
50 freestyle
Women's 1-meter diving
400 medley relay
Friday, Feb. 28
10 a.m. (prelims)
400 IM
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
Noon (prelims)
Women's 3-meter diving
2:30 p.m. (prelims)
Men's 3-meter diving
5 p.m. (finals)
Women's 3-meter diving
6 p.m. (finals)
400 IM
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
Men's 3-meter diving
200 freestyle relay
Saturday, March 1
10 a.m. (prelims)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
400 freestyle relay
11:45 a.m. (prelims)
Men's platform diving
2:40 p.m. (prelims)
Women's platform diving
4:40 p.m. (finals)
Men's platform diving
6 p.m. (finals)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
1,650 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
Women's platform diving
400 freestyle relay
CAREER BIG 12 INDIVIDUAL TITLES
3___Maren Taylor (2013 1m diving, 2011 3m diving & platform diving)
2___Ellen Lobb (2012 & 2013 50 free)
1___Samantha Tucker (2013 100 free)
1___Skylar Smith (2013 200 IM)
1___Kaitlin Pawlowicz (2013 400 IM)
1___Meghan Houston (2013 3m diving)
CAREER BIG 12 RELAY TITLES
6___Samantha Tucker (2011, '12 & '13 400 FR & 800 FR)
4___Ellen Lobb (2013 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR & 400 MR)
3___Alex Hooper (2012 & '13 400 FR; 2013 800 FR)
2___Gretchen Jaques (2013 200 FR & 400 MR)
1___Kelsey LeNeave (2013 800 FR)
1___Lily Moldenhauer (2011 400 MR)
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas has won 11 of 17 Big 12 Championship meets. The Longhorns won the 2013 Big 12 Championships in Austin with 1,051 points. Head coach Carol Capitani was selected as the Women's Swimming Coach of the Meet, while Matt Scoggin was named as the Women's Diving Coach of the Meet. Meghan Houston and Maren Taylor shared the honor of Women's Diver of the Meet.
Texas has won 116 Big 12 individual swimming titles, 54 Big 12 relay crowns and 34 Big 12 diving championships. UT serves as the Big 12 Championships host for the eighth time.
The women's portion of the Big 12 Championships features Texas, West Virginia, TCU, Kansas and Iowa State. The men's championships feature Texas, West Virginia and TCU.
TEXAS DIVERS WIN TEAM TITLE AT USA DIVING WINTER NATIONALS
The Longhorns' women's divers joined the UT men to win the combined team title for a second straight year at the USA Diving Winter National Championships (Dec. 17-22).
Led by individual event champions Maren Taylor and Murphy Bromberg, the UT women finished second in the women's team standings. Taylor won the individual three-meter title with a cumulative total of 923.90 points and earned a spot on the U.S. roster for this summer's FINA World Cup in Shanghai, China.
Joining Taylor in Shanghai will be freshman Murphy Bromberg, who earned her spot on the U.S. World Cup roster by winning the platform event at the USA Diving Winter Nationals. Taylor and Bromberg joined Texas freshman Michael Hixon and Texas-Ex Troy Dumais on the U.S. team at the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Taylor was a finalist in the three-meter event in Barcelona while Bromberg was a finalist in the synchronized platform event.
In her first season with the Longhorns after transferring from UCLA, junior Emma Ivory-Ganja won bronze in the three-meter event at the USA Diving Winter Nationals. Bromberg added a runner-up finish alongside former Ohio State diver Cheyenne Cousineau in the synchro platform event.
TEXAS INVITE YIELDS NCAA AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS
The Longhorns reaped the fruits of their rigorous fall training at the annual Texas Invitational (Dec. 5-7), where they registered a pair of NCAA automatic-qualifying marks.
UT opened the second night of the Texas Invite with a NCAA automatic qualifier in the 200 medley relay, where Lily Moldenhauer, Gretchen Jaques, Skylar Smith and Ellen Lobb finished in 1:37.60, less than a tenth of a second off of USC's winning time.
Samantha Tucker added a top-10 national mark in the 200 freestyle and placed second overall at 1:44.63. Tucker joined Lobb, Moldenhauer and Jaques to post a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in the 400 freestyle relay at 3:15.93.
LONGHORNS AMONG NATION'S ELITE
UT veterans and newcomers alike have posted numerous swims that rank among the top-25 swims in the country.
The Longhorns show off their range in the freestyle events with top-25 marks in four of the five freestyle events contested at the NCAA Championships. Samantha Tucker's 200 freestyle mark of 1:44.63 ranks seventh in the country, and the Austinite ranks 21st nationally in the 100 freestyle at 48.73. Junior Kelsey LeNeave holds the No. 25 slot nationally in the 200 freestyle at 1:45.89.
Junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz leads the distance contingent and holds top-15 national times in the 1,650 freestyle and the 1,000 freestyle, the latter of which is most commonly contested in dual meets. The Vienna, Va., native ranks 13th in the 1000 at 9:48.06 and 15th in the 1,650 freestyle at 16:12.39. Senior Ellen Lobb rounds out the Longhorns' top-25 freestylers with her No. 18 national time in the 50 freestyle at 22.41.
NATIONAL TOP-25 FREESTYLERS (all rankings based on regular-season meets)
50 Freestyle
18. Ellen Lobb – 22.41
100 Freestyle
21. Sam Tucker – 48.73
200 Freestyle
7. Sam Tucker – 1:44.55
25. Kelsey LeNeave 1:45.89
1,000 Freestyle (not a championship event)
13. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 9:48.06
1,650 Freestyle
15. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 16:12.39
Senior Lily Moldenhauer, a former national high school record holder in the 100 backstroke, ranks 14th nationally in that event at 52.40. Freshman Tasija Karosas has thrived in her semester-plus under coaches Carol Capitani and Roric Fink. The Stowe, Vt., native holds college swimming's 13th-fastest mark in the 200 backstroke at 1:54.32, well under her previous top time of 1:55.49 from the NCSA Junior Nationals last March.
NATIONAL TOP-25 BACKSTROKERS
100 Backstroke
14. Lily Moldenhauer – 52.40
200 Backstroke
13. Tasija Karosas – 1:54.32
Junior Gretchen Jaques can ably fill any of three strokes – breaststroke, butterfly or freestyle – on the Longhorns' medley relays. Only NCAA champion Laura Sogar has been faster in the 100 breaststroke at Texas than Jaques, who clocked a personal best of 59.39, the No. 7 time in the country at the Texas Invitational. Jaques also ranks 19th nationally in the 200 breaststroke at 2:10.42.
NATIONAL TOP-25: BREASTSTROKE
100 Breaststroke
7. Gretchen Jaques – 59.39
200 Breaststroke
19. Gretchen Jaques – 2:10.42
No Texas freshman has chopped time off of lifetime bests more so than Madisyn Cox of Lubbock. The former Texas state high school champion in the 200 individual medley arrived on campus with a personal best of 1:59.31. Her new lifetime best of 1:56.83 from the Texas Invitational ranks her 13th nationally.
As a high school senior last February, Cox logged a lifetime best of 4:16.11 in the 400 individual medley. Cox has chopped over six seconds off of her personal best in four months of training in Austin, and her top mark of 4:09.99 is good for the 15th-fastest time in college swimming.
NATIONAL TOP-25: INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
200 IM
13. Madisyn Cox – 1:56.83
400 IM
13. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 4:09.56
15. Madisyn Cox – 4:09.99
Madisyn Cox – Personal Bests
Event Before Texas Through 1st semester at UT
200 IM_____ 1:59.31_________1:56.83
400 IM_____ 4:16.11_________4:09.99
200 BR____ 2:14.13_________2:11.90
THE 2013-14 LONGHORNS: Under second-year head coach Carol Capitani (cap-it-TAN-ee), second-year assistant coach Roric Fink and 20th year diving coach Matt Scoggin, Texas returns eight All-Americans from the 2012-13 team that won the Big 12 Championship and placed ninth at the NCAA Championships.
Senior Samantha Tucker collected her first individual All-America selection in the 200 freestyle at the 2013 NCAA Championships. Her All-America classmates include Alex Hooper, Ellen Lobb, Lily Moldenhauer. Tucker has joined Lobb, Hooper and Moldenhauer to earn multiple All-America honors in relay events over the past three seasons.
Senior Maren Taylor leads a traditionally strong corps of Longhorn divers. The Arlington, Va., native made a triumphant return to the sport last season after rehabilitating a dislocated right elbow sustained at the 2011 NCAA Championships.
Taylor earned All-America honors in the one-meter and platform diving events last season before earning a spot on the U.S. roster to compete at the FINA World Championships, where she placed 11th in the three-meter event. Freshman Murphy Bromberg also represented the U.S. at Worlds in Barcelona and placed seventh in the synchronized platform diving event with Ohio State's Cheyenne Cousineau.
Sophomore diver Meghan Houston added a bronze medal in the three-meter synchronized diving event at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
All totaled, Texas welcomes 12 newcomers in the form of 10 true freshman and two transfers. Junior diver Emma Ivory-Ganja earned All-America honors in the three-meter and platform diving events last season at UCLA. Junior swimmer Kimmy Phillips was an NCAA Championships qualifier last season for North Texas.
Texas has picked up significant early contributions from freshmen Tasija Karosas, Madisyn Cox and the aforementioned Bromberg. Cox won two swimming events in the win over Rice and added three more wins in UT's victory over North Carolina. Karosas registered wins in the 100 and 200 backstroke events against North Carolina.
