The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Championships
Schooling smashes school record at Big 12 Championships
02.23.2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling takes down Olympian Jimmy Feigen’s eight-year-old school mark in the 50-yard freestyle.
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AUSTIN, Texas – Olympic gold medalist and six-time NCAA champion Joseph Schooling rewrote the Longhorns' eight-year-old school mark in the 50-yard freestyle and highlighted day two for the Longhorns Thursday evening at the 2017 Big 12 Championships.
Schooling, the reigning Olympic champion in the 100m butterfly who holds NCAA records in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events, added a fifth school record to his collection when he clocked 18.76 seconds to win Thursday's 50 freestyle final. The mark eclipsed the previous school and Big 12 mark of 18.84 set by two-time U.S. Olympian Jimmy Feigen at the 2009 NCAA Championships in College Station.
Olympic gold medalist Jack Conger followed in second behind Schooling at 19.27 while junior Brett Ringgold took third at 19.29. Sophomore Tate Jackson placed fourth at 19.52 and senior P.J. Dunne took sixth at 19.89. Senior Will Glass also cleared the 20-second mark at 19.99.
Olympic gold medalist Clark Smith, a former NCAA champion in the 500-yard freestyle, won the same event Thursday evening in 4:11.11, which eclipsed the meet record of 4:11.41 by Texas' Michael Klueh at the 2008 Big 12 Championships in Austin. Olympic gold medalist Townley Haas, the defending NCAA champion in the event, followed closely behind in second at 4:12.90. Sophomore Jeff Newkirk, who has produced breakthrough swims already this week in the 200 and 500 freestyles, placed third at 4:15.99 while junior Jonathan Roberts took fourth at 4:24.41.
Senior Will Licon, the defending NCAA champion in the 200 IM, claimed the Big 12 title in the event in 1:42.35 while sophomore John Shebat took second at 1:42.99. Sophomore Sam Stewart followed in third at 1:45.16 while freshman Josh Artmann took fourth at 1:46.58.
Texas wrapped the evening with a win in the 400 medley relay, where Texas has won the last two NCAA titles and holds the NCAA record. The same four who won the NCAA crown and currently hold that NCAA record – Shebat (46.24), Licon (50.83), Schooling (45.64) and Conger (42.62) – took the win Thursday evening in 3:05.33, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut.
Texas leads the Big 12 Championships with 398 points through the second of four days. West Virginia holds second with 299 points while TCU sits in third with 216 points.
Day three of the Big 12 Championships begins Friday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. CT.
Players Mentioned
