The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Championships
02.26.2015 | Men's Swimming and Diving
All-America sophomore Will Licon eclipses 200-yard individual medley school record held by Olympic gold medalist Ricky Berens.
VIDEO: Will Licon's record-setting 200 IM | Final Results
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas All-America sophomore Will Licon posted his third school record and eclipsed the UT mark in the 200-yard individual medley Thursday evening on day two of the Big 12 Championships at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Licon (El Paso, Texas) claimed the school and Big 12 records in the 200 IM at 1 minute, 41.67 to surpass the school and league standard of 1:41.92 set by Olympic gold medalist Ricky Berens at the 2009 NCAA Championships.
"This record is really special," Licon said. "It's kind of hard for me to soak it in right now. It feels awesome and I'm just thrilled to be up there with the company of names on that (school records) board."
Licon opened the medley with a 22.11 lead-off on the butterfly leg before splitting 25.12 seconds on the backstroke leg. Licon picked up the breaststroke in 29.42 before coming home in 25.02 seconds on freestyle to finish in 1:41.67.
"I had to work the underwater (kicks) and try to hold as strong of a pace I could for each 50 without exerting too much while not backing off too much to find the right speed."
Remarkably, Licon collects the third school record of his young Longhorns career. He claimed the 400 IM school mark (3:40.84) from former All-American Austin Surhoff at the 2014 NCAA Championships and the 200 breaststroke school record (1:52.18) in December at the Texas Invitational.
"For me, the first school record was one of the proudest moments of my life," Licon added. "I'm more than honored to have my name on the board with guys I idolized growing up. One of my biggest dreams was to be on there just once. I'm thrilled with three and I couldn't ask for more."
UT freshman Joseph Schooling took second in the same 200 IM race Thursday evening in 1:42.99 while junior John Martens took fourth in 1:44.74.
Sophomore Clark Smith opened the evening by securing his first Big 12 title, as he claimed the 500 freestyle in 4:13.71. Smith, the son of former Longhorns swimmers John Smith and Tori (Trees) Smith, cleared the 4:14 mark for the third time this season. Freshman Jonathan Roberts produced another strong swim and took second in 4:15.40 while senior Clay Youngquist took third in 4:16.92. Junior Sam Lewis placed fourth in 4:17.01, and senior Jake Ritter added a fifth-place time of 4:18.73.
Junior Matt Ellis notched his first Big 12 individual title and took down the event's defending champion, Tim Squires of West Virginia. The Austin native was victorious in 19.57 seconds. Freshman Brett Ringgold took third at 19.70, and senior Tripp Cooper placed fourth at 19.84.
Texas finished off the evening by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:07.00, well under the NCAA automatic-qualifying standard of 3:09.40. Senior Kip Darmody led off in 46.45 while sophomore Imri Ganiel split 53.09 on breaststroke. Schooling split 53.09 on the butterfly leg before Conger anchored in 42.26.
Texas leads the four-day championship event with 355 points. TCU holds second place with 233 points while West Virginia sits in third with 221 points.
Friday's preliminary round gets underway at 10 a.m. CT at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
