The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

No. 6 Men's Swimming and Diving sweeps day one at Big 12 Championships
02.21.2018 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns claim both relays and the one-meter diving event.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 6 Texas won both relays with room to spare and added a one-meter diving victory on day one of the Big 12 Championships at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas opened the meet with its victory in the 200-yard medley relay. Freshman Austin Katz joined seniors Austin Temple, Joseph Schooling and Brett Ringgold to finish in 1 minute, 24.30 seconds. Katz led off in 21.61 before giving way to Temple, who split 24.30 on breaststroke.
Schooling, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 100m butterfly, picked up the butterfly leg in an impressive 19.60 seconds before Ringgold anchored in an equally impressive 18.79 on freestyle.
Sophomore Jacob Cornish scored his second career Big 12 title and claimed the one-meter diving event with 367.05 points. His classmate Reed Merritt took fourth with 321.40 points.
Texas capped the meet's opening day with a victory in the 800 freestyle relay. Junior Jeff Newkirk became UT's fifth-fastest swimmer in the 200 freestyle with his leadoff leg of 1:32.80. Katz split 1:34.60 on the relay's second leg before senior Jonathan Roberts clocked 1:35.99 on leg three.
All-America junior Townley Haas anchored the relay in 1:33.39, as Texas took the win at 6:16.78, an NCAA automatic-qualifying cut.
West Virginia, given that it had four divers competing in the one-meter diving final, leads the championship through the first of four days with 126 points. Texas holds second with 115 points while TCU sits in third with 89 points.
Day two of the Big 12 Championships gets underway Thursday at 10 a.m. CT.