The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Invitational
No. 9 Men’s Swimming and Diving Preview: Texas Invitational
11.26.2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns wrap the fall against top competition at the annual four-day meet in Austin.
WHAT: Three-time defending NCAA champion No. 9 Texas hosts the annual Texas Invitational at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
The four-day meet, which simulates a competition environment comparable to the Big 12 and NCAA Championship meets, features the host Longhorns along with men's and women's teams from Arizona, USC, Wisconsin, BYU, Harvard, Northern Arizona, Oklahoma Baptist, TCU and UNLV. In addition, the meet includes the Arizona State men, Stanford men, UCLA women and Rutgers women.
Diving will not be contested given that the Texas divers hosted the UT Diving Invitational earlier this month.
WHEN
Wednesday, Nov. 29
6 p.m. – 800 freestyle relay, only
Thursday, Nov. 30 through Saturday, Dec. 2
10 a.m. prelims/6 p.m. finals
RESULTS
http://sidearmstats.com/texas/swim/index.htm
Complete schedule & meet information available here
THRICE AS NICE
Texas maintained its place as the sport's most dominant men's program last year for a third consecutive season, as the Longhorns tied their own NCAA Championship meet record with 11 national titles on their way to a third straight and 13th overall NCAA team title last March.
The Longhorns won the 2017 NCAA title with 542 points and outdistanced their nearest competitor, runner-up California, by 193 points. Remarkably, Texas won the last three NCAA team titles by an average margin of 171 points in the final team standings.
Will Licon became the first Longhorn to win three individual titles at a single NCAA Championship meet. His victory in the 100 breaststroke made him just the fourth swimmer ever in the history of men's collegiate swimming and diving to win NCAA individual titles in four different events (200 & 400 IM, 100 & 200 breaststroke).
He lowered his NCAA and American records en route to victory in the 200 breaststroke, claimed his second career national title in the 200 IM and his first in the 100 breaststroke. Licon's performance resulted in his selection as the 2017 Big 12 Conference co-Male Athlete of the Year alongside Frank Mason of Kansas basketball.
Clark Smith set NCAA and American records en route to victory in the 500 and 1,650 freestyle events at his final NCAA Championship. Jack Conger added yet another NCAA and American record-setting swim, as he claimed his first NCAA individual title in the 200 butterfly.
Olympic gold medalist Townley Haas won his second straight NCAA title in the 200 freestyle, and Longhorns John Shebat and Jonathan Roberts both broke Aaron Peirsol's 14-year-old school record in the 200 backstroke on the meet's final day.
FORTY ON THE FORTY
The most decorated head coach in the rich intercollegiate athletics history of The University of Texas, Eddie Reese begins his 40th season on the Forty Acres. Reese, the only coach in the sport's history to win NCAA titles in four different decades, is responsible for all 13 NCAA men's team championship banners hanging at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Reese won Texas' first NCAA men's swimming and team title in his third season in 1981. He put the Longhorns back on top in 1988, which kicked off an incredible run of four consecutive NCAA titles through 1991. UT claimed its sixth NCAA title under Reese in 1996. Four years later, Reese put together another impressive run of three NCAA titles in as many years (2000-02).
Texas ascended to the top of the men's swimming and diving world once again in 2010 and claimed its 10th NCAA title. And, for an unfathomable third time in his distinguished tenure, Reese led Texas to another stretch of three consecutive NCAA titles in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
HAAS, SCHOOLING WIN MEDALS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
UT junior Townley Haas won five medals, including three golds, for Team USA, and senior Joseph Schooling won bronze for Singapore this summer at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Haas, a gold medalist in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 2016 Olympic Games, won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, the 4x100m medley relay and the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay in Budapest. He added his top individual finish to date at a major international meet, as he won silver in the 200m freestyle, a year after placing fifth in the same event at the Rio Olympics. The Richmond, Virginia, native added bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Schooling, the gold medalist in the 100m butterfly for Singapore at the 2016 Olympic Games, won bronze in the same event in Budapest.
ROBERTS, KATZ WIN SILVER MEDALS AT WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES
Texas senior Jonathan Roberts and freshman Austin Katz won medals for Team USA over the summer at the World University Games in Taipei City, Taiwan.
Roberts anchored the American's 4x200m freestyle relay to a silver medal. He split 1 minute, 48.83 seconds on the relays final leg, as the relay won silver in 7:12.19.
Katz, a true freshman in his first semester with the Longhorns, won silver in the 200m backstroke at 1:56.70 and missed out on the gold by less than two-tenths of a second.
Texas sophomore diver Grayson Campbell also competed for Team USA at the World University Games. He joined Texas women's diver Meghan O'Brien to place fourth in the mixed synchronized three-meter final in Taipei City.
