The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
02.24.2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving
He would prefer to be Batman in another life, but sophomore sprinter Brett Ringgold will be more than happy to be a superhero in the water this week.
Big 12 Championship Seeds (Event, Rank, Time)
50 Freestyle, 2nd, 19.38
100 Butterfly, 6th, 46.82
100 Freestyle, 1st, 42.04
On winning the 100 freestyle with a personal best at the Texas Invitational: When I touch the wall, I usually go underwater to take my cap and goggles off. Everything I was hearing from the announcer was muffled, and I thought he said 42.4 and I was kind of disappointed with time. I came up out of the water and saw the 42.0 and I just thought, 'Wow, I finally did it.' It was really something going from one step to the next level. Swimming is 90% mental. You're telling yourself that you can do this and you just proved to yourself that you did it. It's kind of like a spur to the next step, which is under 42 (seconds).
On the Big 12 Championship: I have my NCAA (qualifying) cut, so I'm not really that tapered for this meet. I'm going for the feel of it. Ed's not going to have me shave or anything, so in the 100 [free] I want to go under 42.5 again just to show that I can do that. But I really feel like I can have a good 50 [free] because I've been working on my starts a lot. I feel like it's a lot faster. I'm not really happy with where my 50 is at right now. I just want to see how my dolphin kicks are feeling underwater right now.
This Friday I will be in the 100 fly. My main goal for that is really to just work those underwaters (kicks) and see how far I can push myself underwater. It could be a big breakthrough. Last year I had a really good 100 fly time and Ed came up to me and pointed out one thing that just really messed up everything. I've spent this whole last year working on that. I feel like now I'm in an even better spot than I was last year. I was breathing every stroke and he switched it to a one up, one down pattern. It's the little things that matter.
On his love for superheroes, including Batman (his nickname): I don't really know when my love for Batman started, because I've just been a fan my whole life. For as long as I remember I've just been a Batman fan.
Is Batman an alter ego or just for fun?: It's a little bit of both, really. I've found that when you're meeting new people it's hard for them to really remember a name, so if you say something like, 'Call me Batman,' they'll remember that. They'll remember your name faster. I even have my TA's (teaching assistants) right now calling me Batman. It's just a part of me.
On having an appreciation for superheroes in general: I'm more into the DC Universe as opposed to Marvel. Like Superman, Batman, The Flash… The rest of my family are Marvel fans and I'm the only DC fan.
Texas head coach Eddie Reese
On Brett: You don't find many guys as fast as he is that will want to swim the 400 IM in a swim meet (against TCU) and still go a good time. All of these guys, they work so hard, they care so much, and they take care of each other so well. The good thing is they make Kris Kubik and I look so much better than we are. That may be the most important thing.
It will be hard for Brett to be faster than he's been, but our goal, we talked about the other day, is for him to be real close to the times he went in December at the Texas Invite. That would be very, very good.
