The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Georgia
No. 1 Men's Swimming and Diving holds off No. 3 Georgia, 158-142
01.10.2015 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns stave off the Bulldogs, sweep road trip against SEC foes.
ATHENS, Ga. – No. 1 Texas (5-1) won eight events and wiped out an early deficit en route to a hard-fought 158-142 victory over No. 3 Georgia Saturday afternoon at UGA's Gabrielsen Natatorium. The Longhorns complete a road sweep of Southeastern Conference foes after handily defeating Auburn at its home pool on Thursday.
Georgia opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay, but Texas staved off UGA's gains by taking second and third places in the relay. Sophomore Clark Smith, the nation's second-ranked swimmer in the 1,000 freestyle, posted UT's first win of the day and won that event in 9 minute, 0.73 seconds. Junior Sam Lewis added a fourth-place time of 9:05.04.
Georgia took the top-two slots in the 200 freestyle before UT sophomore Jack Conger followed by taking the 100 backstroke in 47.78. Senior Kip Darmody solidified a one-two Texas finish in 48.17.
Texas collected a boatload of points from its divers on both the one-meter and three-meter boards. The Longhorns took the top-three spots on both boards, and sophomore Mark Anderson led off with a win on one-meter with 398.25 points. Redshirt senior Will Chandler took second at 384.60 while junior Cory Bowersox placed third with 362.33 points.
Later on, Texas put some distance between itself and Georgia in the team standings by way of its one-two-three finish on the three-meter board, where Chandler was victorious with an impressive total of 444.68 points. Anderson took second at 424.13 while Bowersox claimed third place at 397.43.
Freshman Brett Ringgold posted a key win in the 100 freestyle after Georgia had claimed the other sprint event, the 50 freestyle. The Keller, Texas, native took the 100 in 43.78 while senior Clay Youngquist placed fourth at 44.47.
Conger finished off his sweep of the backstroke events with a top time of 1:43.34 in event's 200-yard race. Last month at the Texas Invitational, Conger joined Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol as the only Longhorns to eclipse the 1:40 mark in the event.
Georgia collected substantial points in the 200 breaststroke, but Texas answered by going first, third and fourth in the 500 freestyle, typically a Georgia stronghold. Smith trailed UGA's Matias Koski heading into the final 50 yards but ran down the Bulldogs' All-American and won by less than two-tenths of a second. Smith was victorious in 4:19.94, and Lewis took third in 4:23.34. Freshman Jonathan Roberts added two points by placing fourth at 4:23.44.
Texas continued its late surge with its one-two finish in the 100 butterfly, where Schooling claimed the victory in 46.61. Senior Tripp Cooper logged a key second-place finish after chasing down UGA's Tynan Stewart in 47.48.
Georgia took first and second in the 400 IM, but with 152 points heading into the final event, Texas had clinched the team victory. UT disqualified its "A" entry in the 400 freestyle relay but took second and third places to finish off the win with 158 points.
Texas resumes dual-meet competition in three weeks when it hosts Arizona and SMU.
