The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
U.S. Olympic Diving Trials
06.26.2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns notch third, fourth and fifth-place finishes on day one in Omaha.
OMAHA, Neb. – Top-five finishes from UT rising seniors Clark Smith and Madisyn Cox and rising sophomore Townley Haas highlighted night one for the Longhorns Sunday at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
The men's 400 freestyle championship final featured Longhorns occupying lanes one through three in the form of Smith, Haas and Michael McBroom. Smith, the 2015 NCAA champion in the 500-yard freestyle and American record holder at 1,000 yards, dipped under world record pace through the first 250 meters (2:17.99) before slipping to second at 300 meters.
Haas held second through 200 meters and slipped to fourth at the 300 and 350m marks but he and Smith continued to challenge the leaders, Connor Jaeger and Conor Dwyer. In the end, however, it was Jaeger and Dwyer who earned the spots on the U.S. Olympic team in the 400m freestyle.
Jaeger took the win at 3:43.79 while Dwyer took the second qualifying position at 3:44.66. Haas placed third at 3:45.04, well under the personal best of 3:48.09 from the preliminary round, and Smith took fifth at 3:45.74, well under his lifetime best of 3:47.10. McBroom placed eighth at 3:52.60.
"My (personal) best time by far, and it was great to get out and race some of the best swimmers in the world," Haas said. "It was amazing, just a lot of fun to be out there."
Cox went out aggressively in the women's 400 individual medley final and posted her second consecutive personal best in as many swims on the day. The Lubbock native, better known for her proficiency on the back half of her individual medley races, held the fourth position through the opening 100 meters of butterfly at 1:03.21.
Cox moved into the third position after the backstroke at 2:14.41 before finishing the breaststroke at 300 meters at 3:34.08. She held on to the fourth position and lowered her personal best to 4:38.85.
"I'm happy with that," Cox said. "It's all about going fast and getting into finals. I feel prepared for Tuesday's races and the rest of the meet."
All-America rising senior Will Licon took the eighth and final qualifying position for Monday's 100 breaststroke championship final at 1:00.30. Licon, who forgoes the 100 breaststroke in favor of the 400 IM at conference and NCAA championship meets, posted a lifetime best of 1:00.50 in the preliminary round and lowered that to a 1:00.30 for fourth in his semifinal heat and eighth overall in semifinals.
UT women's signee Lauren Case qualified for the 100m butterfly semifinals during the morning preliminary round and placed 14th overall at 59.40.
Day two of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials gets underway Monday at 10 a.m. CT. Live video of prelims and finals will be available at NBCSports.com/Live, and NBC will air Monday's finals at 7 p.m. CT. Meet results are available during the preliminary and finals sessions at OmegaTiming.com.
