The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Forty Acres Insider: May 17
05.17.2022 | Forty Acres Insider
Important news happening in and around Texas Athletics compiled by Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte. [<a href="http://texassports.com/archives.aspx?path=forty_acres_insider">Forty Acres Insider archives</a>]
Longhorn Nation,
It was another outstanding week for our Longhorns as we lit the Tower Burnt Orange for three more Big 12 Championships. Raising trophies is a perfect way to launch us into this week as there's no more important victory than the one we'll light the Tower for and celebrate later this week – it's time for GRADUATION, and we must first start this week's note by recognizing the many Longhorns reaching the mountaintop in the classroom, too! It's the culmination of a goal all of our student-athletes set out to attain when they arrive on the Forty, and a huge accomplishment for the brilliant and talented University of Texas Class of 2022. Earning a degree is a monumental achievement, and doing so at our great institution — one of the premier universities in the world — says you are among the best and brightest. We know you and your families are so proud, and so are we! We're beyond fired up to see you graduating, and right here at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, to boot.
As we prepare for graduation and a week filled with even more big-time NCAA competition and events, we must take time to celebrate last week because it was a special one. And the culmination on Sunday was spectacular with Rowing and Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field all claiming conference titles that day. It was the seventh-straight for Dave O'Neill and our Rowing program, and marked the Big 12's first-ever back-to-back season sweeps of all of the Indoor and Outdoor team league titles for Track & Field. That's 11 Big 12 Championships in just four seasons for Coach Flo, as well! And on Friday, Coach Joffe and our defending National Champion Women's Tennis team survived and advanced to move on to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Count 'em up, that's 11 Big 12 Championships in 2021-22! Which, combined with the Big 12-record 13 we won last year, ties our all-time record for most Big 12 titles in a two-year stretch. The last time we did that was 2001-03, when we won a dozen titles in 2001-02 and again in 2002-03. Just an amazing accomplishment from an extraordinary group of student-athletes, coaches and staff that we have here on the Forty Acres. We want to thank y'all for all you do to support us and providing that patented Longhorn passion, pride and spirit that pushes us each and every day!
Get those Football Season Tickets before they're gone!
Season tickets for the 2022 Football campaign continue to go at a fast and furious pace. If you haven't gotten on board, you better hurry up before they're gone! There's still time to get those tickets and guarantee your spot at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium this fall for the epic Texas-Alabama game and our exciting seven-game home slate. Take a look at the map here, dial us up or learn more about it on TexasSports.com. Bear in mind that purchasing season tickets is the ONLY way to guarantee tickets for that monumental matchup with Alabama on Sept. 10. DKR will be the place to be all season long, so don't miss out. There are a number of different options to consider, from your traditional season tickets to premium seating options and the UFCU Field Club location, just call 512-471-3333 (Monday-Friday/9 a.m.-4 p.m. CT) to discuss or read more about it right here.
Secure your Women's Basketball season tickets in the Moody Center!
Coming off of two consecutive Elite Eight appearances and the Big 12 Tournament Championship, Coach Schaefer and our Women's Basketball program have things cooking. With the move to the brand new Moody Center, now is the time to get those season tickets if you haven't already. Starting at $100, you can join the Texas Fight in the finest arena in college sports all season long. Tickets can be purchased online at TexasSports.com/tickets or by calling 512-471-3333 (Monday through Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Central). More information on the Moody Center can be found here.
Track & Field sweeps Big 12 Outdoor Championships, again
It was a momentous weekend in Lubbock for Coach Flo and our Longhorns as records fell, titles were collected and impressive times and distances were posted en route to securing another sweep of the Men's and Women's Big 12 Championships. That makes it a full-on four-for-four sweep of the conference Men's and Women's Indoor and Outdoor crowns this year, and oh by the way, we did that last year, too! As a matter of fact, that is just the sixth time a Big 12 program has swept all four meets in the same year with five of those being ours, and we're the first to ever do it in back-to-back years. It was a total team effort as our Longhorns were scoring in bunches across nearly every event, leading to the Women winning their third-straight outdoor title and the Men taking it for the second year in a row. All totaled, 11 Longhorns (six men/five women) claimed individual titles and the Women's 4x100m relay quartet of Julien Alfred, Rhasidat Adeleke , Kevona Davis and Kynnedy Flannel was triumphant with a scorching time of 42.35 that broke the school record they set earlier this year. That makes them the fifth-fastest collegiate 4x100m relay team ever, and this spring they've now run five of the six best times on UT record. That deserves a WOW! Talk about history, how about those sprints where Micaiah Harris became UT's first Big 12 100m Champion since Jamaal Charles in 2006?! Then, the meet's high-point scorer topped that, as a short time later he won the 200m to pull off a 100m-200m conference championship double that no UT sprinter has accomplished since Longhorn Legend Johnny Lam Jones back in the Southwest Conference days of the 100-yard and 220-yard dash in 1977. On the Women's side, Alfred won the 100m final after clocking a blistering 10.81 in the prelims and shattering a 31-year old UT record held by the great Carlette Guidry (10.94/1991). Flannel made it a UT women's 100m-200m sweep, setting a meet record and breaking her own program-best by clocking 22.23. In a slightly farther race, Jonathan Jones brought home the 400m title, and did so by dropping his own school-best by two-tenths of a second to a Big 12 meet record of 44.43. The Women dominated the 400m, as well, taking the top three spots with Stacey Ann Williams winning in a career-best 50.21 (No. 4 on UT's all-time outdoor performers list) and Kennedy Simon (50.68) and Adeleke (50.70) close behind. In the field, Tripp Piperi led the way by doing what he always does, winning the Big 12 shot put title for the ninth time. His toss of 69-9.75 is fifth-best on the UT all-time outdoor list, and he now has four of the five best outdoor throws recorded by a Longhorn. Kristine Blazevica won the heptathlon and is four-for-four in her career at Big 12 Championships, having won the indoor pentathlon titles and outdoor heptathlon crowns in 2021 and 2022. Four the fourth time in the last five years, the Big 12 women's javelin champion is a Longhorn as Rhiley Fritz's throw of 164-9 was good for first place. We brought home middle and long distance titles on the men's side as well with Yusuf Bizimana winning the 800m for the second consecutive year on Sunday, and Haftu Knight crossing the line first in the 10,000m to get things going at the start of the meet on Friday. With tons of momentum and our squad continuing to stampede ahead, next on the docket is the NCAA West Preliminaries May 26-28 at Coach Flo's old stompin' grounds in Fayetteville, Ark. He'll be looking to make it a successful homecoming and get a bunch of Longhorns qualified to compete for the National Championships June 8-11 in Eugene!
Micaiah Harris tabbed USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week
After sensational showing at the Big 12 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships where he swept the 100 and 200-meter dashes and was the meet's high-point scorer, our sprinter extraordinaire Micaiah Harris has been named the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week. And those times — 9.93 in the 100m and 19.72 in the 200m — may have been wind-aided so not eligible for the record-book, but let's just say en fuego! He also ran the anchor leg on our runner-up 4x100m relay squad last weekend. It's been a long time since we've had a men's sprinting double like that at the conference meet, and we couldn't be prouder of Micaiah and more excited for what the future holds with the NCAA West Preliminaries and NCAA Championship on the horizon. The sky's the limit my friend!
Rowing claims seventh-straight Big 12 Championship
It was déjà vu all over again for Dave O'Neill and our top-ranked Rowing team. They came, they saw and they conquered, winning a seventh-straight Big 12 Championship on our home waters of Walter E. Long Lake on Sunday. And they did it in truly dominant fashion, sweeping all five races by an average of nearly 26 seconds to secure a convincing conference victory. With a clean sweep, our Horns collected 98 points in the final Big 12 team standings and automatically qualified our defending National Champions for the NCAA Championships. For that Championship effort, we celebrated and lit the Tower Burnt Orange in their honor on Sunday night. Today, the NCAA will reveal the rest of the field for the NCAA Championships during the Division I Rowing Selection Show, and all of that information is available on NCAA.com. The national championship regatta will take place Friday, May 27, to Sunday, May 29, at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla., the same site where we captured last year's crown.
Six Longhorn Rowers earn All-Big 12 honors
More congratulations are in order for our Big 12 Champion Rowing squad as six standouts of our victorious First Varsity Eight earned all-conference honors on Sunday. The honorees were four seniors in Aspa Christodoulidis, Lisa Gutfleisch, Kate Knifton and Fran Raggi, junior Rachel Rane, and sophomore Anna Jensen. It was the third time Aspa earned All-Big 12, while Kate, Fran and Rachel have all made the all-league team twice. Sending kudos and an emphatic Hook 'Em for a great day on the lake!
Women's Tennis heads to Champaign in search of a second-straight national title
How cool was the atmosphere on Friday afternoon at the Texas Tennis Center?! After dropping the doubles point, our Longhorns showed that good 'ole Texas Fight in front of Longhorn Nation and rallied to win four singles matches in straight sets to earn a 4-1 victory over No. 14 Auburn and move on to the NCAA Quarterfinals! It marks our 12th appearance in the "Elite Eight" in program history and second-straight under head coach Howard Joffe. Peyton Stearns continued to be absolutely dominant, winning her 14th-consecutive singles match. Charlotte Chavatipon is playing her best tennis of the season at the right time and improved to 5-0 in postseason singles play this year. Freshman Allura Zamarripa gave us a huge win and moved to 2-0 in singles in the NCAA Tournament, and freshman sensation Sabina Zeynalova improved to 20-1 in singles and provided the clinching point for the third-straight NCAA Tournament match. Now it's off to Champaign, Ill., where the final three rounds of the team championship and the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be held. We'll take on No. 5 Virginia in the quarterfinals on Friday (3 p.m. CT), with the semifinals set for Saturday and the NCAA Championship match scheduled for Sunday. Longhorn Nation, if you can get to Champaign, we urge you to cheer our ladies on as they look to bring back a national championship for the second-straight season!
Men's Tennis season of Texas Fight comes to a close
We all know this wasn't the season Coach Berque and our Horns envisioned back in January, but let's just take a minute and appreciate the Texas Fight they put on display this year. I've said it before, but to do what they did without having a fully healthy lineup ONCE during the entire season was something we can all admire and applaud. Like so many of their matches this year, they were oh so close to pulling out a victory on the road at No. 5 Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Saturday with a point here and a point there making the difference down the stretch in both doubles and singles. It was definitely a heartbreaker, and you could see it on their faces when the match ended, but they gave everything they had. It wasn't the result any of us wanted, but there's still so much to be proud of with the program getting its eighth-straight season reaching at least the Sweet 16, which means an NCAA tie for 9th place and thus an eighth straight top-10 finish. It was also our eighth year in a row of at least 18 wins. With all of that, they never lost to a team outside the top-15, and nine of their 11 loses were to teams in the top six with many of those by just one point. Just incredible. And even though the team season is completed, our boys aren't done yet as the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships are right around the corner next week starting on May 23. We've got a number of qualifiers for those with Micah Braswell and Pierre-Yves Bailly in singles, and two outstanding doubles pairs – the number 4 seed Richard Ciamarra and Cleeve Harper, and a 5-8 seed in Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab. Both of those duos will have some All-America honors coming their way from the ITA thanks to their top-eight seeding, so kudos to them! We've also got our fingers crossed for Eliot to get into the singles tournament as an alternate. We all know he's one of the top players in college tennis, but after missing all fall with a wrist injury and playing the team season basically one-handed, his ranking wasn't where it would normally be. But that's why he's a perfect example of the sacrifice all of these guys made for the team to have a season to be proud of. A big Hook 'Em to all of you!
NCAA Championships here we come for Women's Golf
On the heels of a second-place finish at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional, Coach Murphy and our Women's Golf squad have earned a spot in the NCAA Championship for the sixth-straight year. Our Horns were the only team to shoot under par on the final day as they surged into second place and just three strokes behind Oregon for the title. We joined the Ducks as the only two teams in the history of NCAA Albuquerque Regionals to shoot under par on that challenging course. All five of our Longhorns were in the top-25 individually with native Austinite Bentley Cotton finishing tied for sixth. All-American Sara Kouskova and freshman phenom Bohyun Park were tied for 11th. Up next is the NCAA Championship that begins this Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Our Horns have advanced to the eight-team Match Play portion in each of the last two NCAA Championships, and we're one of only five teams that can stake that claim, so we'll be taking dead aim to get back there. You can follow the action on all of our platforms, as well as Golf Channel. Let's go Horns! Hey, and while we're talking Women's Golf, check out this awesome feature on our talented golfer and aspiring artist Sara Kouskova, courtesy of our friends at Longhorn Network!
Men's Golf underway at NCAA Norman Regional, seeking to qualify for NCAA Championship
Coach Fields and our No. 6 Men's Golf team is currently competing at the NCAA Norman Regional at Jimmie Austin Golf Club. We began play at the three-day, 54-hole tourney on Monday and continue play on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Norman Regional features 13 teams and 10 individual players, with the low five teams and low individual not on those five qualifying teams advancing to the NCAA Championship on May 27-June 1 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Entering this year's Regional, our Longhorns have qualified for 14 consecutive NCAA Championships dating back to the 2008 season. That's the longest current streak in NCAA Division I men's golf! Let's #TakeDeadAim and make it 15!
Softball heading West to for NCAA Seattle Regional
The NCAA Field of 64 has officially been set, and Coach White and our Softball squad are heading to the Pacific Northwest to participate in this weekend's NCAA Seattle Regional. The Longhorns will begin their NCAA road on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT against Big Sky Conference Champion Weber State live on Longhorn Network. Also joining Texas in Seattle for the double-elimination event are Patriot League Champ Lehigh and host and No. 13 national seed Washington. The winner of the Seattle Regional will advance on to face the victor of the Fayetteville Regional (either No. 4 national seed Arkansas, Oregon, Wichita State, Princeton) in the NCAA Super Regionals. This marks Texas' 22nd overall and 17th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. Let's go west ladies and show them our Texas Fight!
A UT record seven Longhorn Softball standouts earn All-Big 12 honors
For the second-straight season, our Softball squad tied a program record with seven players listed among the various All-Big 12 teams. Three of our magnificent seniors – second baseman Janae Jefferson, catcher/first baseman Mary Iakopo (third career All-Big 12 nod) and pitcher Hailey Dolcini (first career All-Big 12 selection) – all earned first-team All-Big 12 accolades. It was the fourth-straight first-team honor for Janae, who was a unanimous first-team choice, and third career All-Big 12 nod for Mary. Sophomore shortstop Alyssa Washington and freshman third baseman Mia Scott were tabbed second-team All-Big 12. The Longhorns also led the league with three inclusions (all unanimous) on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team in Scott, catcher/first baseman Katie Cimusz and pitcher Sophia Simpson. Congrats to all of our honorees!
Baseball heads into Big 12 regular season finale this week
After a rare bye weekend, Coach Pierce and our Horns get back at it tonight with Sam Houston in town for our final regular season non-conference tilt (6:30 p.m. CT/LHN). That sets up a Thursday-Saturday series with Kansas right here at UFCU Disch-Falk Field which will close out our conference season slate before next week's Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington. That double-elimination tournament begins on Wednesday, May 25, and we'll know our seeding and matchup after Saturday's regular season finale. Stay tuned for all the details!
Another Full Week on the 40
We've got a lot going on this week on The Forty and beyond with lots of NCAA Championship competition and Big 12 Conference play. On Sunday, Softball got the news of its selection to the NCAA tourney and will be traveling to Seattle this week and begin play Friday. Fresh off a Sweet Sixteen victory at the Texas Tennis Center, Women's Tennis travels to Champaign, Ill., where the final three rounds of the team championship and the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be held. Our Longhorns take on No. 5 Virginia in the quarterfinals on Friday, with the semifinals set for Saturday, and the NCAA Championship match scheduled for Sunday. Men's Golf is in the midst of NCAA Regional Championship competition in rival territory (Norman, Okla.) and seeking to advance to the NCAA Championship for the 15th-straigth time. Baseball hosts Sam Houston tonight before Kansas comes in later this week for the Big 12 regular season series finale. Women's Golf is coming off a second-place finish at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional and is headed to the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Ariz., later this week. It's the sixth-straight NCAA Championship bid for Coach Murphy and the ladies. And we have another stop on the Texas Fight Tour on Wednesday in Houston.
Monday
• Men's Golf at NCAA Regional Championship
Tuesday
• Men's Golf at NCAA Regional Championship
• Baseball vs. Sam Houston
Wednesday
• Men's Golf at NCAA Regional Championship
• Texas Fight Tour (Houston)
Thursday
• Softball hosts NCAA Regionals
• Baseball hosts Kansas
Friday
• Women's Golf at NCAA Championship
• Women's Tennis vs. Virginia at NCAA Championship Elite Eight
• Softball at NCAA Seattle Regional
• Baseball hosts Kansas
Saturday
• Women's Golf at NCAA Championship
• Women's Tennis at NCAA Championship Final Four*
• Softball at NCAA Seattle Regional
• Basketball hosts Kansas
Sunday
• Women's Golf at NCAA Championship
• Women's Tennis at NCAA Championship Match*
• Softball at NCAA Seattle Regional*
*If Texas advances
Last week's championships vault us into another week of wall-to-wall Longhorn fun, festivities and competition. It's Graduation week, we've got NCAA Golf, Softball and Tennis, Baseball's back at the Disch to close out the regular season, and there's another stop on the Texas Exes Texas Fight Tour, this time in Houston. We are stampeding through May my friends, and what a great time it is to be a Longhorn! We're so grateful to have you riding shotgun with us for this glorious trip. There's nothing like the pride and winning tradition of The University of Texas, so let's keep on keepin' on! Get those Horns up!
Hook 'Em Horns,
Chris Del Conte
Chris Del Conte
P.S. — Light the Tower! On Monday we celebrated our Big 12 Champion Women's Golf squad. Good luck at NCAAs y'all!
P.S. — Here Comes Texas: A Title IX Story. This is absolute must-see viewing built around our National Championship Rowing program! Give it a click and thank me later!!
P.S. — I'm with you Coach Beard, let the countdown begin! Can't wait!!
P.S. — Nine-time Big 12 Shot Put Champion and now has posted four of the five best outdoor throws in the storied annals of Longhorn T&F in the event to boot! You're the best Tripp!
P.S. — 10.81, check out the afterburners on this one! Julien was burnin' up the track and breaking a 31-year-old UT record in the process!!
P.S. — Thrills of Victory! Seven-in-a-row for Texas Rowing!!
HEADLINES
Softball run rules Texas Tech in round one of the Big 12 Championship
Rowing Coach Dave O'Neill on 104.9 FM The Horn
Track & Field claims more Big 12 titles on day two of Outdoor Championships
Two Longhorns win titles on day one of Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Texas' Peyton Stearns is on the fast track to stardom in women's tennis (Austin American-Statesman)