The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Championships
No. 7 Women's Swimming and Diving completes sweep of Big 12 Championships
02.27.2016 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns sweep all 21 events for a second straight year.
Complete Results | Video Recap | Photo gallery
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 7 Texas claimed all seven events and finished its second straight sweep of the conference meet Saturday evening at the 2016 Big 12 Championships.
The Longhorns captured their 14th Big 12 title with 1,043 points. Kansas took second with 650.5 points while Iowa State took third with 570.5 points. West Virginia placed fourth with 530 points and TCU took fifth with 451 points.
Texas made a clean sweep of the post-meet awards with All-America junior Madisyn Cox taking top honors as the Women's Swimmer of the Meet. Senior Meghan Houston was named the Women's Diver of the Meet, and swimmer Joanna Evans was tabbed as the Women's Newcomer of the Meet.
The league's coaches selected Texas head coach Carol Capitani as the Women's Swimming Coach of the Meet, and Matt Scoggin was named the Women's Diving Coach of the Meet.
All-America junior Tasija Karosas opened the night by winning her third straight Big 12 title in the 200-yard backstroke, as she completed a sweep of the backstroke events this week in 1 minute, 51.21 seconds. It marked her fifth career Big 12 individual title. Freshman Quinn Carrozza finished as the runner-up at 1:54.32, while junior Rebecca Baxley placed fifth at 1:58.13.
"I was happy with my swim this morning but I knew I wanted to be a little bit faster," Karosas said. "But, I kind of just went into it and told myself to enjoy the moment and enjoy the race, because this is what I train for every day."
All-America sophomore Rebecca Millard posted consecutive lifetime bests in the 100 freestyle and took home her second straight league crown in the event at 47.88, just off of the NCAA automatic-qualifying cut. Sophomore Mimi Schneider followed in second at 49.30, while sophomore Sam Sutton took fourth at 50.71. Freshman Nora McCullagh placed sixth at 50.86.
"Honestly, I wasn't coming into the meet hoping to break 48," Millard said. "I was just coming in trying to go under my best time. So, I'm really pleasantly surprised by these two swims today."
Freshman Joanna Evans collected her second league title of the meet and claimed the 1,650 freestyle at 16:13.39, good for a NCAA "B" cut.
Cox claimed her third Big 12 individual title of the meet and cruised to victory in the 200 breaststroke at 2:09.37. Freshman Olivia Anderson finished as the runner-up at 2:11.01 while junior Jordan Surhoff took third at 2:14.80. Sophomore Bethany Leap placed sixth at 2:16.21.
Freshman Remedy Rule scored her first career Big 12 individual title in the 200 butterfly. Rule ran down Kansas' Chelsie Miller and took the win in 1:57.95. Junior Maggie D'Innocenzo took third at 1:59.68.
Senior Kristina Hoffmann took home her first career Big 12 title and captured the platform diving event with 271.45 points. Freshman Brooke Pospichal finished as the runner-up with 261.00 points while freshman Sofia Rauzi placed third with 255.55 points.
The Horns capped the meet with a convincing win in the 400 freestyle relay, where freshman Brooke Hansen joined Millard, Schneider and Karosas to finish in 3:16.93.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas head coach Carol Capitani
On the championship: I feel like every night we had a lot to celebrate. Almost every event there was somebody who stood up and got the job done. We set some relay records, Big 12 records, individual records… and took some Texas records off the board, which is really the direction we want to go.
On Madisyn Cox's selection as Women's Swimmer of the Meet: Madisyn was spot on. A lot of our kids were just rock solid. I think Madisyn was in there, Tasija [Karosas], Rebecca Millard, Olivia [Anderson]… I mean, we have a bunch of kids, and I'm probably not naming them all, that really got up and every time they got up they just swam well. We didn't even have to worry about it.
On freshmen making contributions at the meet: I think it's important to learn how to swim fast for seven sessions in a row. I think that's the biggest lesson you can take from this. Even though it's not the level of competition NCAA's is, to be able to get up every morning to figure out to find a way to go faster, I think that's the most important part. They can learn a lot.
Players Mentioned
