Clark Smith sets NCAA, American records at Texas Invitational

Here you go, the final 50 yards of Clark Smith's @NCAA and American record 1000-yard freestyle swim. pic.twitter.com/MhFcaKZ7G0
— Texas Men'sSwimDive (@TexasMSD) December 6, 2015

Complete Meet Results

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas All-America junior Clark Smith smashed the NCAA and American records in the 1000-yard freestyle to cap a productive week of racing for the top-ranked Longhorns Saturday evening at the Texas Invitational.

Smith, who set the records during the opening 1,000 yards of the 1,650 freestyle, clocked 8 minutes, 33.93 seconds to break the American record of 8:36.49 set by former USC swimmer Erik Vendt on Jan 18, 2008.

Smith took down the NCAA record of 8:43.48 set by former Longhorn Michael McBroom on Feb. 1, 2013 in Austin.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about getting the records," Smith said. "It's a stepping stone to where I want to be. It definitely sets me up well going into the NCAA Championships later on. I'll probably try the mile at the Big 12 Championships and work my way up."

The son of a pair of former NCAA champion Longhorns swimmers, Smith nearly took down the NCAA and American records Thursday evening in the 500-yard freestyle. The Denver native became UT's first NCAA champion in the 500-yard freestyle last March.

"We talked about this for about six months and he wanted to go for it," said UT head coach Eddie Reese. "Those are hard records to get. A great distance swimmer held that American record, Erik Vendt. It happened in the era of the big tech suits, and so to break one of those long records was really hard to do. That's as hard as he's ever worked in a race."

With the intent of posting a fast 1000-yard split in the 1,650 freestyle, Smith swam down in the final 650 yards of the race to officially drop out of the top-10 finishers, but with the records in hand. Officially, freshman Townley Haas posted the top finish for Texas with his second-place mark of 14:41.09, good for the seventh-fastest swim in UT history.

Freshman Ryan Harty posted the No. 3 time in the country in the 200 backstroke and took a close win over BYU's Jake Taylor at 1:40.60, which made him the seventh-fastest Longhorn in the event. UT senior Ian LeMaistre added a fourth-place mark of 1:44.04.

Sophomore Brett Ringgold became the fifth-fastest Longhorn ever in the 100 freestyle and posted the No. 3 time in the country at 42.04, an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut. All-America seniors John Murray and Matt Ellis placed second (42.49) and third (42.82), respectively, while freshman Jeremy Nichols won the consolation final in 43.84.

Three-time NCAA champion senior Will Licon cruised to victory in the 200 breaststroke in 1:52.82, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut and the No. 1 time in the country.

Three-time NCAA champion Joseph Schooling posted the top time in the country en route to victory in the 200 butterfly at 1:40.48. The one-two finish with Schooling and teammate Jack Conger matched the finish in the same event at the 2015 NCAA Championships.

Conger posted the nation's No. 2 time at 1:41.40. All-America junior Will Glass took third at 1:43.91, while senior John Martens placed fifth at 1:44.52. All-America sophomore Jonathan Roberts added a seventh-place mark of 1:45.80.

The Horns wrapped the night with a convincing win in the 400 freestyle relay with an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 2:50.72. Ringgold (42.30) joined Haas (42.80), Murray (42.82) and Schooling (42.80) on the relay.

ADDITIONAL POST-MEET COMMENTS

Texas head coach Eddie Reese

On Brett Ringgold's strong weekend of sprinting

Brett is just a hard worker, the engineering major. I think what pushed him over the edge to swim as well as he did this week is he ended up getting an 'A' in a course when he thought he was going to get an 'A-'. So, he's real happy. It doesn't take much to make him happy.

On Ryan Harty's backstroke races this week

He came here with goals. He wants to break Aaron Peirsol's school record (in the 200 backstroke). Had I shaved him, I think he could have done it. I know he would have. But, it wasn't time to shave him.

On Townley Haas

Townley swam a real good 100 (free) this morning and jumped in that mile for us tonight. He did a great job.

On Joseph Schooling and Jack Conger posting the nation's top-two times in the 200 butterfly

Those times are really fast right now. Especially coming off 'heck week' in school. They put academics first, and they should. So it's a tough weekend for us, but a real good one.

Junior Clark Smith

On breaking Erik Vendt's American record

It's refreshing. It's definitely a big step from my freshman year from when I didn't make the meet (NCAA Championships) to doing times that are pretty respectable. I'm taking it one meet at a time.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

Clark Smith sets NCAA, American records at Texas Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Jack Conger

Matt Ellis

Will Glass

Townley Haas

Ryan Harty

Ian LeMaistre

Will Licon

John Martens

John Murray

Jeremy Nichols

Brett Ringgold

Jonathan Roberts

Joseph Schooling

Clark Smith