The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Auburn
No. 2 Men’s Swimming and Diving Preview: No. 13 Auburn
01.05.2018 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns host first home dual meet of the season against the Tigers.
WHAT: Three-time defending NCAA champion No. 2 Texas (1-4) kicks off the new year with its annual meet against No. 13 Auburn. The Longhorns host their first home dual meet of the season after traveling throughout the fall to Florida, Texas A&M, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 13 Auburn at No. 2 Texas
Monday, Jan. 8 – Noon CT (diving begins at 11 a.m.)
Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center – Austin, Texas
LAST MEETING
Texas defeated Auburn by a 164-136 count on Jan. 12, 2017 at Auburn.
DIVERS SWEEP TEAM TITLES AT USA DIVING WINTER NATIONALS
Texas swept the men's, women's and combined team titles an added an individual high point award winner last month at the USA Diving Winter National Championships.
Texas claimed the men's team title with 143.5 points, and the UT men joined the women to win the combined team title. UT freshman Jordan Windle was the men's individual high point winner with 58 points for the meet. The two-time World Championships qualifier won a second straight U.S. national title on platform and added a pair of third-place finishes on one-meter and three-meter.
UT diving coach Matt Scoggin was honored with the Mike Peppe Award as the nation's top coach, and Grayson Campbell teamed with UNC's Gregory Duncan to win the men's synchronized three-meter title.
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.
CAMPBELL, WINDLE WIN TITLES AT USA DIVING NATIONALS
Texas sophomore Grayson Campbell captured his first senior national title on one-meter, and freshman Jordan Windle claimed the platform title at the USA Diving National Championships in August.
Campbell led the one-meter competition from start-to-finish and totaled 366.90 points for the win. Windle totaled 425.70 points en route to victory in the men's platform final. He also represented Team USA at the 2015 and 2017 FINA World Championships. He placed 26th on platform at the 2017 World Championships.
Players Mentioned
