The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Indiana
Men's Swimming and Diving drops Florida, falls to Indiana
10.21.2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Two-time defending national champions split their season-opening meets in long course format, take on same two teams Saturday in the traditional short-course format.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Two-time defending national champion Texas won seven events and split its season-opening meets against host Indiana and Florida Friday afternoon at the Hoosiers' Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.
Texas dealt Florida a 185-96 defeat while falling to Indiana by a 149-132 count. IU also dealt Florida a 181-100 defeat. The three teams are competing in the same format conducted in last year's two-day meet in Austin, which was conducted in long course meters (50m pool) on the first day and the standard collegiate format, short course yards (25-yard pool), on the second day.
Indiana opened the meet by claiming the 200-meter medley relay before All-America senior and U.S. Olympian Clark Smith took second in the 800m freestyle at 8 minutes. 22.95 seconds. Sophomore Townley Haas, the U.S. national champion and fifth-place finisher in the 200m freestyle at the Rio Olympics, won the same event Friday afternoon in 1:51.29.
Indiana claimed the top-two spots in the 100m backstroke, where UT junior Jonathan Roberts placed third at 58.52. Junior Imri Ganiel logged the Horns' top finish in the 100m breaststroke with his 1:05.26 for second place. Senior Jack Conger, a U.S. Olympian and American record holder in the 200-yard butterfly, held off Florida's Jan Switkowski for the win in the 200m butterfly at 2:01.08.
All-America senior Mark Anderson paced the Horns in the one-meter diving event, the only diving event of the afternoon, with his second-place total of 381.35 points. IU's Blake Pieroni, a U.S. Olympian in the 4x100m freestyle relay, held off Haas for the win in the 100m freestyle, as Haas took second at 50.79.
Texas' Roberts, a finalist in the 200m freestyle last summer at the U.S. Olympic Trials, led a one-two Longhorns finish atop the 200m backstroke, as he claimed the victory in 2:04.72. UT freshman Josh Artmann ran down Florida's Maxime Rooney for second at 2:05.86.
The 200m breaststroke featured an outstanding race with the top-three finishers finishing within less than half a second of one another. Indiana's Cody Taylor held a slight lead over Texas' Casey Melzer at 150 meters, but Melzer clipped Taylor for the win at the final wall in 2:24.12, just ahead of Taylor's 2:24.17.
Smith held off Indiana's Marwan Elkamash to claim the 400m freestyle at 3:55.99 while sophomore Jeff Newkirk took fourth at 4:05.95. Conger completed a sweep of the butterfly events with his mark of 53.43 at 100 meters.
Texas wrapped the meet by winning the 400m freestyle relay, as Smith, Haas, sophomore Tate Jackson and Conger finished in 3:22.84. Indiana led by over a second at 300 meters before Conger made up the deficit in the first 50 meters alone and put the Horns in the lead for good.
Texas, Indiana and Florida go head-to-head once more on Saturday in the traditional 25-yard (short course) format at 10 a.m. ET.
Players Mentioned
