The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Championships
Men’s Swimming and Diving Preview: NCAA Championships
03.24.2014 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns host the NCAA Championships for the eighth time.
WHEN: Thursday, March 27 through Saturday, March 29
WHERE: Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center – Austin, Texas
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS EVENT HOME PAGE: HERE
LIVE SWIMMING RESULTS: HERE
LIVE DIVING RESULTS: HERE
LIVE VIDEO: Live video of all preliminary rounds in addition to the day one finals will be available at TexasSports.com. ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN mobile application will offer live video to subscribers during the day two and day three finals sessions.
NCAA MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS RETURN TO AUSTIN
• UT will host the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships for the eighth time overall (1951, '81, '85, '87, 91, '96, 2003, 2014) and for the seventh time at its Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, which opened in 1977. The pool is named after UT alumni and benefactors Joe Jamail and his wife, the late Lee Hage Jamail. The pool will seat approximately 1,800 spectators per session at the 2014 NCAA Championships.
• The Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center played host to the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships for the first time in 1981, when third-year head coach Eddie Reese led the Longhorns to their first of 10 NCAA team titles.
• Texas has won three of the seven NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championship meets it has hosted (1981, 1991, 1996).
• Yale won the 1951 NCAA title at UT, and Stanford won the 1985 and 1987 NCAA titles at Texas. Auburn won the most recent NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championship meet at Texas in 2003. UT has finished no worse than fifth place at the seven NCAA Championship meets it has hosted.
• The Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center also has played host to six NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship meets, the 1988 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and the 2001 U.S. World Championship Trials. The facility hosts the USA Swimming Austin Grand Prix every January.
• The Texas Swimming Center was modeled after the pool constructed for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The TSC features a 50-meter swimming competition pool that, with a depth of nine feet, holds 880,000 gallons of water. The diving well has a peak depth of 18 feet and holds 660,000 gallons of water. The diving facility has six three-meter springboards, four one-meter springboards and diving platforms at 1, 3, 5, 7.5 and 10 meters.
FULL SCHEDULE
NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships
Thursday, March 27
11 a.m. CT (prelims)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 IM
50 freestyle
400 medley relay
1:30 p.m. CT (prelims)
1-meter diving
7 p.m. CT (finals)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 IM
50 freestyle
1-meter diving
400 medley relay
Friday, March 28
11 a.m. CT (prelims)
200 medley relay
400 IM
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
1:30 p.m. CT (prelims)
3-meter diving
7 p.m. CT (finals)
200 medley relay
400 IM
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
3-meter diving
800 freestyle relay
Saturday, March 29
11 a.m. CT (prelims)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
400 freestyle relay
1:30 p.m. CT (prelims)
Platform diving
4:45 p.m. CT
1,650 freestyle (early heats)
7 p.m. CT (finals)
1,650 freestyle (last heat of timed finals)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
Platform diving
400 freestyle relay
TWENTY LONGHORNS COMPETING AT HOME POOL THIS WEEK
Texas has qualified 16 swimmers and four divers to compete at this week's NCAA Championships.
Senior Patrick Murphy will make his third NCAA Championships appearance. Murphy ranks 17th nationally in the 200-yard backstroke at 1:41.35. Senior Caleb Weir makes his second NCAA Championships appearance in as many seasons after transferring to UT from Indian River Community College. Weir qualified with his No. 15 national mark in the 100 freestyle (42.66).
Led by former national champions Kip Darmody and Clay Youngquist, Texas will send six juniors to the national meet at its home pool. Darmody qualified with his No. 11 national mark in the 100 backstroke at 45.92. Youngquist qualified with the nation's 11th-fastest times in the 500 freestyle (4:15.68) and the 200 butterfly (1:43.39). Darmody and Youngquist helped Texas win the NCAA title in the 800 freestyle relay two seasons ago as freshmen.
Tripp Cooper qualifies once more for the NCAA Championships after posting the nation's sixth-fastest time in the 100 butterfly at 45.73. Cooper holds the No. 11 national mark in the 200 butterfly at 1:42.64. Keith Murphy, a former breaststroke swimmer, qualifies for his first NCAA Championship meet after breaking 43 seconds in the 100 freestyle. Murphy's time of 42.91 ranks him 25th nationally.
Jacob Ritter qualifies for his third national meet in as many tries. The Houston native qualified for the meet with his No. 18 national time of 4:16.30 in the 500 freestyle. Junior Nicolas Munoz qualifies for his first NCAA Championship meet. His mark of 15:02.04 in the 1,650 freestyle ranks him 26th nationally.
Texas will send five sophomores to the NCAA Championships, including two-time NCAA qualifier Sam Lewis, who ranks 15th nationally in both the 500 freestyle (4:16.06) and the 1,650 freestyle (14:55.44). Matt Ellis, Imri Ganiel, Aaron Gustafson and John Murray also will make their first individual NCAA Championships appearances for the Longhorns.
Ellis, a Georgia transfer, qualified 19th in the 50 freestyle at 19.37. Ganiel qualified 30th in the 100 breaststroke at 53.23, and Gustafson took the final qualifying spot in the 100 backstroke at 46.57. Murray qualified with his 22nd-ranked mark of 19.40 in the 50 freestyle.
Freshman Jack Conger will bring top-10 national marks in the 100 butterfly and the 200 backstroke to the NCAA Championships. Conger ranks third nationally in the 100 butterfly at 45.56 and seventh in the 200 backstroke at 1:40.56. He boasts the nation's No. 12 mark in the 500 freestyle at 4:15.73.
Freshman Will Glass qualified with his No. 23 national mark in the 200 backstroke (1:41.90). Freshman Will Licon will bring the nation's 15th-fastest mark in the 200 breaststroke (1:54.40) to the national championships. Texas will compete in all five relays at the NCAA Championships.
Divers Michael Hixon and Will Chandler earned their berths to the NCAA Championships on March 10 at the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Meet in Minneapolis. Diver Cory Bowersox qualified on March 11, and on the final day of the zone meet, freshman diver Mark Anderson qualified for the NCAA meet by winning the platform event with 840.6 points.
TEXAS' NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS (with probable individual events)
Mark Anderson (1m, 3m, platform diving)
Cory Bowersox (1m, 3m, platform diving)
Will Chandler (1m, 3m, platform diving)
Tripp Cooper (50 free, 100 fly, 200 fly)
Jack Conger (500 free, 100 fly, 200 back)
Kip Darmody (100 back, 200 back)
Matt Ellis (50 free, 100 fly, 100 free)
Imri Ganiel (100 breast, 200 breast)
Will Glass (100 back, 200 back, 100 fly)
Aaron Gustafson (100 back)
Michael Hixon (1m, 3m, platform diving)
Will Licon (200 IM, 200 breast, 400 IM)
Keith Murphy (50 free, 200 free, 100 free)
Patrick Murphy (200 free, 100 back, 200 back)
John Murray (50 free, 100 fly, 100 free)
Jacob Ritter (500 free, 200 free, 1,650 free)
Caleb Weir (100 free, 50 free)
Sam Lewis (500 free, 200 free, 1,650 free)
Nicolas Munoz (500 free, 1,650 free)
Clay Youngquist (500 free, 200 free, 200 fly)
HORNS HOOK 35th CONSECUTIVE CONFERENCE CROWN
Texas captured its 18th straight Big 12 team title and 35th consecutive conference crown this month (March 1) at the Big 12 Championships in Austin. UT topped the team standings with 1,071 points. Redshirt junior Will Chandler and freshman Michael Hixon shared the honor of Men's Diver of the Meet. Freshman swimmer Jack Conger was selected as the Men's Newcomer of the Meet.
TEXAS DIVERS WIN TEAM TITLE AT USA DIVING WINTER NATIONALS
The Texas divers claim the men's team title and join the UT women to win the combined team title for a second straight year at the USA Diving Winter National Championships (Dec. 17-22).
Sophomore Cory Bowersox opened the meet on Dec. 17 with a fourth-place finish in the one-meter event. Freshman Mark Anderson added a runner-up finish in the platform synchronized event, and freshman Michael Hixon notched a sixth-place finish in the three-meter event. Hixon competed alongside four-time U.S. Olympian and former Longhorn Troy Dumais in three-meter synchro at the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
Junior Will Chandler placed ninth on the three-meter board, and Bowersox added an 11th place showing. Bowersox and Chandler capped the meet by placing fourth in the three-meter synchronized event. Anderson went on to place eighth in the platform finals.
HORNS FINISH STRONG AT TEXAS INVITATIONAL
Texas produced a number of NCAA automatic-qualifying marks at its annual Texas Invitational last month (Dec. 5-7). The meet's final day saw freshman Jack Conger defeat a loaded field in the 200 backstroke, where he took the win in 1:40.90, well under the NCAA "A" cut of 1:41.41. The Rockville, Md., native now ranks fourth all-time in the 200 backstroke at Texas behind Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol, Austin Surhoff and Hill Taylor. UT also qualified its 400 freestyle relay for the NCAA Championships with a mark of 2:51.50.
UT qualified its 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays for the national championships on day two of the Texas Invitational. The quartet of Aaron Gustafson, Charlie Moore, Conger and Matt Ellis finished in 1:25.90, good for the third-fastest time in college swimming. Sam Lewis joined Conger, Ellis and Clay Youngquist to qualify the 800 freestyle relay in 6:23.58. Also on day two, Youngquist produced the nation's fourth-fastest time in the 200 freestyle at 1:33.72.
Texas kicked off the meet's opening night with a bang, as Ellis, Murray, Moore and Caleb Weir won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:17.57, good for a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark. UT wrapped night one with a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in the 400 medley relay, as Conger, freshman Imri Ganiel, Ellis and Weir finished in 3:08.80.
HIXON TAKES TWO AT UT DIVING INVITATIONAL
Freshman Michael Hixon dominated the springboards and won the one- and three-meter events at the UT Diving Invitational (Nov. 21-23). The Amherst, Mass., native claimed the one-meter event with 410.60 points and took the three-meter crown with 453.35 points. Will Chandler led the Horns in the platform event with a second-place total of 418.40 points.
Hixon, who competed alongside Texas-Ex Troy Dumais in the three-meter synchronized event last summer at the FINA World Championships, was selected three times this season as the Big 12 Men's Diver of the Week (Dec. 11, Nov. 6, Jan. 22).
THREE-FOR-THREE IN VIRGINIA
Texas posted dual-meet wins over No. 19 Penn State, Virginia and West Virginia in a two-day (Nov. 8-9) quad meet in Charlottesville, Va. UT held off Penn State by a 185-168 margin and knocked off host Virginia, 225-128. Texas defeated Big 12 foe West Virginia by a 259-93 margin.
Clay Youngquist showed off his range in the meet's second day by winning the 1,000 freestyle in 9:11.36 before leading start-to-finish in the 200 freestyle and winning in 1:36.97. A one-two Texas finish from John Martens and Will Licon in the 400 individual helped UT preserve the narrow win over Penn State.
Licon won the 200 IM on the meet's first day, and Youngquist posted his first of three wins in the meet by taking the 500 freestyle in 4:23.99. Jack Conger was victorious in the 200 backstroke at 1:43.25.
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS: Texas returned 29 letterwinners from the 2012-13 squad that won the Big 12 Championship and placed fifth at the NCAA Championships.
Juniors Clay Youngquist and Kip Darmody have helped the Horns to NCAA titles in relay events. Darmody and Youngquist teamed up with former Longhorns Dax Hill and Neil Caskey to win the 800 freestyle relay at the 2012 NCAA Championships. Youngquist joined Hill and former Longhorns Austin Surhoff and Jimmy Feigen to claim the 2012 NCAA title in the 400 freestyle relay. Seniors Charlie Moore and Caleb Weir, junior Tripp Cooper and sophomore John Murray posted All-America finishes on relays at the 2013 NCAA Championships.
Redshirt junior diver Will Chandler made a triumphant return to the sport last season after sitting out the 2011-12 campaign due to the effects of Crohn's Disease, a digestive disorder. The Waco native earned All-America honors in the platform diving event at the 2013 NCAA Championships. Chandler was a finalist in the platform event at the AT&T National Diving Championships in August.
Chandler heads a strong diving corps that includes the likes of sophomore Cory Bowersox and freshman Michael Hixon. As a true freshman, Bowersox earned All-America honors in the one-meter event at the 2013 NCAA Championships. Hixon competed alongside Texas-Ex Troy Dumais in the three-meter synchronized diving event at the FINA World Championships last summer in Barcelona, Spain.
Head coach Eddie Reese is in his 36th season with the Longhorns. Under his guidance, Texas has secured top-three finishes in 27 of 35 NCAA Championship meets. Associate head coach Kris Kubik returns for his 31st season, and diving coach Matt Scoggin, a former Longhorn diver, returns for his 20th season on Reese's coaching staff.
