The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Invitational
No. 9 Men's Swimming sweeps the relays on night two at Texas Invitational
11.30.2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Texas freshmen impress on day two of the annual four-day meet.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 9 Texas swept a pair of relays and finished off a productive session of racing Thursday night at the Texas Invitational.
The Longhorns opened night two with a convincing win in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which Texas has won the last three years at the NCAA Championships. Junior Tate Jackson led off the relay in 19.59 seconds before senior Brett Ringgold, behind a .02 relay takeoff, split 18.41 seconds on leg two.
Junior John Shebat picked up the relay's third leg in 19.14 before senior Joseph Schooling anchored in 18.99. Texas took the win at 1:16.13, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut and the No. 2 time in the country this season.
Junior Townley Haas led the Horns in the 500 freestyle with his third-place mark of 4:14.43. Freshman JohnThomas Larson added a seventh-place time of 4:20.40 in the championship final. Freshman Parker Neri chopped about three seconds off of his personal best in the preliminary round and took off another four seconds in the consolation final, where he was victorious in 4:16.35.
Junior Sam Stewart paced the Horns with his third-place mark of 1:45.09 in the 200 IM. His classmate John Shebat followed closely behind in fourth at 1:45.36 while senior Jonathan Roberts took eighth at 1:46.10. Later on, Ringgold placed third in the 50 freestyle at 19.32, while Schooling took fifth at 19.50.
Texas capped the night with an impressive victory from its "B" entry in the 400 medley relay. Freshman Austin Katz led off in 45.34, good for a personal best in the 100 backstroke. Junior Casey Melzer split 52.50 seconds on the breaststroke leg before freshman Sam Pomajevich picked up the butterfly in 46.13 seconds. Jackson anchored the relay to victory in 42.14, as Texas finished in 3:06.11, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark.
The Longhorns open day three of the Texas Invitational on Friday with the preliminary round at 10 a.m. CT. Finals are set for 6 p.m.
