The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 2 Men's Swimming and Diving sweeps night one at Big 12 Championships
02.22.2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Texas wins all three events, and senior Will Licon sets school and Big 12 records in a morning time trial.
AUSTIN, Texas – A sweep of the three finals events plus school and Big 12 records from All-America senior Will Licon highlighted day one for the Longhorns Wednesday at the 2017 Big 12 Championships.
Texas opened the championship by winning the 200-yard medley relay, as sophomore John Shebat, senior Will Licon and juniors Joseph Schooling and Brett Ringgold took the win at 1:24.23, which tied the meet record set by Hill Taylor, Agustin Magruder, Ricky Berens and Jimmy Feigen in 2009. Shebat led off on backstroke in 21.20 before Licon split 23.70 on breaststroke. Schooling, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100m butterfly, split 20.31 on the butterfly leg before Ringgold anchored in 19.02.
Senior Mark Anderson won his sixth Big 12 diving title overall and his first on one-meter, as he claimed the event with room to spare at 398.20 points. Freshman Jacob Cornish took third at 342.55 while his classmate Grayson Campbell took sixth with 300.15 points.
The Horns wrapped the night with a win and No. 2 time in the country in the 800 free relay, as UT sent out three Olympic gold medalists and talented sophomore Jeff Newkirk, who nearly out-split the other three. Conger led off in 1:32.54 before Newkirk split 1:32.62 on the relay's second leg. Smith picked up the third leg in 1:33.61 while Haas anchored in 1:33.82.
Earlier in the day, Licon lowered his own school and Big 12 records in the 100-yard breaststroke to 51.15 seconds in a time-trial swim. The El Paso native initially set the school and league record of 51.81 during his American record-setting 200 breaststroke swim last March at the NCAA Championships.
West Virginia, by way of its divers in the one-meter final, leads the meet with 137 points while Texas sits in second with 129 points. TCU holds third with 91 points.
Day two of the Big 12 Championships begins Thursday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. CT.
