Forty Acres Insider: March 5 - University of Texas Athletics

Chris Del Conte head shot

Longhorn Nation,

Another week, ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP as we Light the Tower Orange times two with Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving sweeping the Big 12 Championships last weekend. And they did it in truly dominant fashion once again with our women winning 21 of 22 events and the men taking first-place in 19 of 22 events. It was the 28th-straight Big 12 title — and unprecedented 45th conference crown in a row — for our Longhorn Legend Eddie Reese and the men's squad, while Coach Capitani remained a perfect 12-for-12 on the women's side.

.@Big12Conference domination 🤘

going to have to build a new trophy case for @TexasWSD and @TexasMSD 👏🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/UfBbdIVlMN
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 3, 2024

Before we get too far into all the great accomplishments, news, and notes of the past week and what's ahead for us, I've got to give y'all — the best fans in the land — an enormous round of applause and enthusiastic Hook 'Em, Horns for your unbelievable support last weekend. Longhorn Nation is like no other, and as I made my way from event to event, the Burnt Orange and White was loud and proud at each and every stop! We had baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball all in action right here on the Forty, it was a smorgasbord of triumphs and Texas Fight! I dove in just like y'all and enjoyed every magnificent minute of it!!

Sunday capped last week on a picture-perfect day at the Texas Tennis Center with Women's Tennis digging deep to win a Red River Rivalry thriller, 4-3, over the No. 15 Sooners. And Saturday's back-to-back men's and women's basketball games took the cake on the weekend with y'all packin' Moody and raisin' the roof all the livelong day. Fresh off their decisive 81-69 win at Tech last Tuesday, Men's Hoops stayed hot with an 81-65 victory over Oklahoma State to start the day off. With one W in the books, it was time for the evening's entertainment! I can't thank you enough for coming through on our 10k for $10k drive for the women's game on Saturday night and delivering the ultimate trifecta with 10,364 of you in the stands bringing the heat, raising $167,500 for the Neighborhood Longhorns Program, and sending out our seniors in a heartwarming and unforgettable night. The energy was non-stop in the stands and on the court in an utterly dominant 71-46 victory over BYU! Y'all are the absolute best, and we are so, so grateful for your endless pride, passion, and spirit. And I've got to give our staff their flowers, too, as everyone from facility and game operations to creative services and the communications crew were at it around the clock to selflessly support our teams and the Longhorn faithful. The "we not me" attitude was alive and well once again, and we're so doggone lucky to have a fantastic team behind the teams in Texas Athletics!

see y'all again in @MoodyCenterATX real soon 😉#HookEm pic.twitter.com/as0vNeU0bI
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) March 3, 2024

And we were right back at it this week on what was a busy Monday on the course, courts, and field! Softball took down Penn State at McCombs Field to improve to 18-1 on the season and move into the NUMERO UNO spot in the nation! Men's Basketball dropped a tough one at No. 11 Baylor, Women's Golf teed off at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, and Volleyball took its show on the road in front of a sellout crowd for a spring match at UTSA. And that leads right into tonight's epic matchup with our longtime rivals Texas A&M right here at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. It's going to undoubtedly be a wild and crazy night of baseball as we put a bow on our decade-plus of non-conference outings with the Aggies in what will serve as a fabulous teaser to the future showdowns in the SEC! Can't wait to see y'all there, because I know the Disch will be on fire and bursting at the seams!!

But before we move forward, let's take some time for some more monumental look backs. The championships and electrifying efforts by our Longhorns past and present took the nation and world by storm last weekend. You couldn't turn on the NFL Combine all week without seeing a Longhorn turning heads, getting bragged on, and bringing all kinds of wonderful attention to our program. Not just for things like the eye-popping record-setting 40-yard dash time by the X-Man, but for how they carried themselves in interviews and throughout the process, as well. But yes, I, like you, couldn't get enough of the love our guy X got for that historic and blistering 4.21 clocking that took the combine by storm. And across the pond in Scotland, student-athletes who started here took on the world, and three Longhorns brought home Gold Medals from the World Indoor Track and Field Championships. That's the most individual Golds we've ever won in track and field at one Olympics or World Championships. It started with the big guy and king of the shot put universe, Ryan Crouser, launching that 16-pound steel ball farther than all to build on his incredible legacy with a fifth Gold Medal at either the Olympics or World Championships. Then, sprinter extraordinaire Julien Alfred (60m dash) burned up the track, and gravity-defying phenom Tara Davis-Woodhall (long jump) joined her in letting the world know you don't mess with Texas, as they stampeded to world titles, too (they also happened to be the first-ever World Championship victories in their events in Longhorn history). Nobody is doing it better than our Longhorns, my friends, so here's to all of them, and all of you cheering them on!

"The whole combine was this Texas clinic." - @ChaseDaniel #TexasMade x #NFLCombine pic.twitter.com/lYqjGjvMi0
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) March 3, 2024

what starts here changes the 🌎#HookEm pic.twitter.com/7h4A57Wyky
— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) March 5, 2024

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS are on the line this week with our Longhorns heading to Beantown for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships from Thursday through Saturday. Our Big 12 Champion and defending Outdoor National Champion women head in ranked No. 3 and with the second-most qualifiers nationally at 11. The men are ranked No. 7 and have nine qualifiers headed to Boston, including the nation's event leaders in defending indoor 800m champ Yusuf Bizimana (1:45.88) and last year's outdoor decathlon national champ Leo Neugebauer in the heptathlon (6,219 points). Ackelia Smith, the defending NCAA Outdoor Champion in the long jump and top-three finisher in both the long and triple jumps at last year's NCAA Indoor Championships, is among the favorites in both horizontal events again. She's the nation's leader in the long jump with a leap of 22-5.75. And kudos are in order for our sensational leader Coach Flo, who last week was tabbed the Big 12 Women's Indoor Coach of the Year. It was his fifth time receiving that honor, and including men's/women's and indoor/outdoor honors, that makes in a dozen times he's earned a Big 12 Coach of the Year award. He's simply the best, and Flo indeed knows!

A Big 12 Championship will be the target for No. 6 Women's Basketball this week as it's KANSAS CITY HERE WE COME!! After the resounding 71-46 win over BYU on Saturday with y'all rockin' the house at Moody Center, it's Big 12 Tourney time for Coach Schaefer and the squad. At 27-4 overall and 14-4 in the Big 12, we head in as the tourney's No. 2 seed, and with freshman sensation Madison Booker leading the charge we're laser-focused on raising a trophy one last time! Our Horns earned a precious double-bye and won't be lacin' 'em up until Saturday (5:30 p.m. CT/ESPN+), so we'll see who has to play us and be ready to show off our best Texas Fight at T-Mobile Center.

Speaking of Women's Sports, March is Women's History Month, and we are here for it! Throughout the month at our events, we'll celebrate the pride and winning tradition of all our women's athletics teams. Because of so many amazing and talented student-athletes and coaches, and the pioneering vision and passion of our great leaders like Jody Conradt, Donna Lopiano and Chris Plonsky, our Texas Women's Athletics programs set the standard nationally. We continue to thrive, are building on our rich and proud history, and started with a special recognition of Women's History Month at our spring Volleyball and Soccer matches last Friday, as well as Women's Basketball on Saturday. We have a full slate of celebrations planned this month, and next up is Softball on Wednesday. Can't wait to see you there!

happy #WomensHistoryMonth! 🤘

throughout March we will be celebrating the many accomplishments of the women who set the standard of success in Texas Athletics 💪#HookEm pic.twitter.com/E4NxBHQ8Ni
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 1, 2024

There's so much more as it's wall-to-wall Longhorn Sports this week. Top-ranked Softball hosts UTA on Wednesday (6 p.m. CT/LHN), No. 7 Women's Tennis welcomes in West Virginia on Friday (2 p.m. CT) and Cincinnati on Sunday (11 a.m. CT/LHN), Men's Basketball closes out its home season at Moody Center and looks to secure its 20th win with a Red River Rivalry and Senior Day on Saturday (1 p.m. CT/ESPN), and No. 12 Men's Tennis has a big-time non-conference matchup with top-ranked Ohio State at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday (2 p.m. CT/LHN). That's a whole lot for y'all to raise those Horns high for, so come on out! Softball is at Houston, and Baseball is in Lubbock for its season-opening Big 12 series, as well. We've got a full slate all week long so get your Horns Up and let's Hook 'Em!

in full swing🤘#HookEm | @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/olGuSTucja
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 4, 2024

Swim & Dive sweeps Big 12 Conference titles!

Our Swimming & Diving squads closed out Big 12 competition in style in Morgantown last week, as Coach Capitani and Coach Reese guided our Women's and Men's teams to dominant victories at the Big 12 Championships. The women won 21-of-22 events on the way to a 12th-straight Big 12 title, all under Coach Capitani. The victory gave Texas the Big 12 title for the 22nd time in the 28-year history of the conference. A pair of Horns earned individual swimming awards as Kelly Pash (Swimmer of the Meet) and Erin Gemmell (Swimming Newcomer of the Meet) each brought additional hardware back to Austin. On the men's side, Texas collected wins in 18 events to secure Coach Reese and the Horns a 28th consecutive conference crown. You read that right – Texas has won every single Big 12 Men's Swimming and Diving Championship! All told, coach Reese has led our Horns to conference championships in each of the last 45 years. Eddie's swimmers swept the meet awards with Will Modglin earning Swimmer of the Meet honors and Nate Germonprez collecting Swimming Newcomer of the Meet accolades, while Coach Scoggin guided the divers to a trio of meet honors with Hailey Hernandez and Noah Duperre respectively defending their Women's and Men's Diver of the Meet awards and Tanner Braunton earning Men's Diving Newcomer of the Meet honors.

Successful week at Big 12s! Next up, NCAA Championships 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/hf6K3OzRso
— Texas Women's Swimming & Diving (@TexasWSD) March 4, 2024

Continue the legacy 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/wfpNfXvVSD
— Texas Men's Swimming & Diving (@TexasMSD) March 4, 2024

Burnt Orange Combine

Not sure if y'all saw the exciting news this week that UT opened a brand new campus, UT-Indianapolis! All kidding aside, we had 11, let me spell that out, ELEVEN invitees to the 2024 NFL Combine, which was our most ever, and besides just the sheer mass of that number, the show they put on and the way they represented the Burnt Orange and White both on and off the field was something awesome to behold. They were sprinting, cutting, lifting and jumping their way to what had to be the best all-around performance of any school there, and they did it on one of the league's biggest stages. Like Chase Daniel said in the video below from NFL Network, "The whole combine was this Texas clinic!" Talk about first impressions, whoa! My man X was THE talk of the combine coming out of it, and deservedly so. I think the Colts are gonna be sending the league a bill to get that sideline turf replaced that was just scorched – a 4.21 40, ladies and gentlemen – the…fastest…ever…period. But he wasn't alone! Call me Adonai and Keilan Robinson tore it up, JT was smooth as can be and catching everything, Big DT Humans were doing Big DT Human things, and everyone made it happen from start to finish! I could do a whole newsletter on that event alone, but a huge shoutout to not only the ones I just mentioned, but everyone – Jonathon Brooks, Jaylan Ford, Christian Jones, Ryan Watts, and Jordan Whittington (who didn't get to participate quite as much because of a minor injury – the only thing that could slow any of our guys down)! As good as you are football players, you're better people, and it's moments like these that get the waterworks flowing as you see dreams come true. I want you to pay special attention to these two links for JB and Christian from their interview sessions. It really says it all about the program and culture Coach Sark has built, and it makes you beam with Longhorn pride!

A Record Breaking Run 🤘@XavierWorthy x #NFLCombine pic.twitter.com/zG56cveuR7
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) March 3, 2024

Men's Basketball celebrates Senior Day with Red River Rivalry on Saturday in The Mood

Well folks, talk about a crazy seven-day stretch for RT and our guys! It started last Tuesday night on the plains in west Texas, where our Longhorns took the court in a hostile environment and absolutely dominated the game from start-to-finish in an 81-69 victory over the Red Raiders. Double-D (that's Pflugerville's finest Dylan Disu) had a game-high 21 points, and Mid-Court Max added 18 as we surged to a 24-point lead by halftime and cruised back to Austin with the win. Our Longhorns returned to the friendly confines of Moody Center on Saturday and pulled away in the second half for an 81-65 win against Oklahoma State. Disu had a team-high 17 points and tied his career high with five assists, while Chendall Weaver added a season-high 16 points. And how about the Brock-Star, Austin's own Brock Cunningham, who started our second-half run with a big-time three-pointer and contributed eight points and a game-high seven boards. Getting back to Mr. Weaver who has quickly become a fan favorite, congrats to Chendall for earning Big 12 Newcomer of the Week accolades! Our guys finished the stretch with a quick turnaround for a Big Monday trip to Waco and came up just short in a 93-85 loss to No. 11 Baylor last night. I know RT and the team was frustrated with the final result, but I'm so dang proud of the Texas Fight displayed on the court. Disu battled through a stomach virus to give us everything he had before suffering an injury with just under 11 minutes remaining (and with Texas leading 68-62). And what can you say about Max Abmas and his 33-point effort (not to mention his five assists and four steals)?! Max is now up to No. 8 on the NCAA Division I men's all-time scoring list and No. 4 on the all-time chart for most career three-pointers. Longhorn Nation, we need you to come out and give this team a great home-court advantage in our regular-season finale against Oklahoma on Saturday (1 p.m. CT/ESPN). Let's pack The Mood one last time this year on Senior Day and put over one more win!

moving right on up to #️⃣8️⃣ on the @NCAA all-time scoring list 🤘#HookEm | @maxabmas pic.twitter.com/teDCuSBkD1
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) March 5, 2024

Women's Basketball sets sights on Big 12 Championship in Kansas City

Thank you, Longhorn Nation! Y'all brought the energy and packed The Mood on Saturday and what an atmosphere it was that helped our ladies to a 71-46 victory over BYU! I'm so proud of this team, as to face all the injuries and adversity head on and go 27-4 overall and 14-4 in Big 12 play is simply remarkable. We honored our seniors, Shaylee Gonzales and Khadija Faye, on Saturday and how cool was it to see them be recognized and celebrate with their friends and family?! And a big thank you to Coach Vic, as we continued our 10K for 10K and donated $167,500 to the Neighborhood Longhorns Program! With the conclusion of the regular season, it's time for some well-deserved hardware for this group. Congratulations to do-it-all Madison Booker who became the first freshman in Big 12 women's basketball history to earn Player of the Year honors! Madison also took home Big 12 Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous selection on the All-Big 12 First Team. Kudos to DeYona Gaston for being recognized as the Big 12 Sixth Player of the Year. Aaliyah Moore claimed All-Big 12 Second Team accolades, and the trio of Gonzales, Shay Holle and Taylor Jones all were named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. And one more shout-out to Shay, as she also earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Defensive Team. Now it's on to Kansas City and the Big 12 Championship. As the No. 2 seed in the tournament, we'll start play in the quarterfinals on Saturday (5:30 p.m. CT/ESPN+) against either Kansas or BYU. Hope to see you in KC!

yesterday was a movie 🤩🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/3oncwdoRLL
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) March 3, 2024

Baseball looks to bounce back

Our Baseball team is back at UFCU Disch-Falk Field later tonight (6:30 p.m. CT/LHN) and looking to respond after a tough weekend in Houston. The Longhorns dropped a couple of games to top-10 teams LSU and Vanderbilt as well as a wild one-run setback to Texas State. But it's sure to be a fun one on Tuesday night with the Aggies in town and we're expecting a packed house, so get to the ballpark early, wear your Burnt Orange and be loud to cheer on our Longhorns. This is a challenging part of the schedule and doesn't get any easier as the team heads back on the road to open Big 12 play at Texas Tech this weekend with games set for Friday (6:30 p.m. CT), Saturday (2 p.m. CT) and Sunday (2 p.m. CT).

See y'all tonight 🤘https://t.co/3RsN2gxLSV #HookEm pic.twitter.com/rs4uYA7Lx3
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) March 5, 2024

Softball rises to the No. 1 spot!

Break out your old CD player and put on Sean Paul's "Temperature" and let's party like it's 2006! For the first time since that year, Texas Softball has earned a No. 1 ranking in the USA Softball/ESPN.com poll following a six-win-in-five-day span that featured a program-record fourth consecutive Big 12 weekly award, too. Teagan Kavan, who picked up her first career Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honor earlier today, started the week with a stellar 1-0 win at Texas State in San Marcos on Wednesday, before the Longhorns outscored their four opponents (Northwestern State, Tarleton State, Hofstra and Penn State) by a combined 51-to-3 with three 5-inning victories during the four-day Longhorn Invitational. The top-ranked team in the nation will return to the diamond at Red & Charline McCombs Field for a game against UTA on Wednesday (6 p.m. CT/LHN), before taking the show back on the road to begin its hunt for a Big 12 championship with its conference-opening series at Houston on Friday (6 p.m. CT), Saturday (12 p.m. CT) and Sunday (12 p.m. CT). Hope to see a lot of Burnt Orange in the stands in H-Town to support our ladies!

🤘🤘🤘#HookEm | @TexasLonghorns pic.twitter.com/CpEpAAIQto
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) March 5, 2024

289' for 2⃣0⃣🤘#HookEm | @KatieStew2242 https://t.co/Ikrk2CctGk pic.twitter.com/DfH1jZ3wHg
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) March 5, 2024

Women's Tennis starts Big 12 play, Men's Tennis has back-to-back top-two contests

It was quite the weekend on the tennis courts, both on the 40 and on the road. Let's start with Coach Joffe and the women, who opened their final season in the Big 12 Conference with some serious Red River Texas Fight, taking out the No. 15 Sooners in dramatic fashion, 4-3, at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday. I think Coach Joffe would be the first to tell you, the early part of the match wasn't what the team was looking for, but it's not how you start, it's how you finish! And our ladies finished with a bang as Sabina Zeynalova came through in the clutch to break a 3-3 tie with her win over a top-40 player for Oklahoma. Trailing, 5-2, in the first set, Sabina said enough is enough and proceeded to win 11 of the next 12 games for a straight-sets clinching victory! That earned her well-deserved Big 12 Player of the Week award! And it wasn't just her, a trio of seniors stepped it up in singles, as well, to complete the comeback with Malaika Rapolu, Charlotte Chavatipon and Taisiya Pachkaleva all getting it done to bring home the opening W of the Big 12 season! So, a big Hook 'Em to all of you! That sets them up with another pair of Big 12 matches this weekend at the TTC, and we need you all there to help get them off to a really great start in the league as West Virginia (Friday/2 p.m. CT) and Cincinnati (Sunday/11 a.m. CT) come to town! Speaking of that, we'll have a trifecta of home tennis this weekend as Sunday will be an Ohio doubleheader! After the women face Cincinnati, the top-ranked team in the land comes in on the men's side in the Ohio State Buckeyes (2 p.m. CT), and we need all the Burnt Orange spirit you can muster to help our guys put over one more win! We'll have food trucks, free t-shirts and more, so be sure to look out for all the great happenin's on our social media! It will also be our men's second-straight match against a top-two opponent after they came ever so close on the road in what was technically a non-conference match in Fort Worth at No. 2 TCU this past Saturday. It was an incredible effort that came all the way down to the third set of the deciding match, before the Horned Frogs were able to slip past, 4-3. However, the teams will be meeting again in conference play in Austin, and I would venture to guess that won't be the last time this year, either. But getting back to the here and now, make sure you head out to the TTC this weekend for a boatload of great college tennis, and if by chance you can't make it, both of the Sunday matches will air courtesy of our friends at Longhorn Network!

One more quick side from the world of tennis. In a bit of a computer quirk, a couple of weeks ago Micah Braswell was supposed to be the numero uno in the men's singles rankings, but because of some erroneous data, he wasn't ranked that at the time. Well, the ITA has gone back and corrected it, so I wanted to make sure to give Micah a special shoutout! It's always one of those really cool accomplishments for any player, and although our own Eliot Spizzirri has since returned to the top spot, here's a big Hook 'Em to Micah! How about this…we've now had two players sit in the top spot in the same season! I'm sure there's some research to be done, but it has to be pretty rare, if it's ever, to have two number ones on the same team in the same year! Way to go, fellas!

Men's Golf earns third-place finish at Southern Highlands Collegiate

Coach Fields and our No. 20 Men's Golf team returned to the links in Las Vegas last week and claimed a third-place finish at the Southern Highlands Collegiate. The loaded 15-team field featured eight squads in the Top 25 of the national rankings, including the nation's top two squads in No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Auburn. The Longhorns registered a three-round score of 2-over-par 866 and were paced by sophomore Tommy Morrison, who used a collegiate-best 18-hole score of 5-under 67 in the final round to earn a collegiate-best tie for sixth in the individual standings with a 54-hole total of 4-under 212 (72-73-67). Senior Nathan Petronzio also recorded a Top 10 performance with a tie for ninth at 2-under 214 (71-69-74). Our guys did all this without the services of sophomore All-American Christiaan Maas, who was back in his native South Africa and earned a runner-up finish at the inaugural Africa Amateur Championship. Maas tied the course record for lowest 18-hole score at Leopard Creek Golf Club with a 9-under 63 during the third round and posted a 72-hole total of 13-under 275 (71-69-63-72) during the four-day event. He advanced to a three-man playoff, before the eventual champion made birdie on the first playoff hole. But kudos to Christiaan for his outstanding effort!

Tied at the top of the leaderboard going down the final hole 👀

We're witnessing the ultimate drama here at Leopard Creek 👉 https://t.co/Wudh5Twagq pic.twitter.com/ofSO3vL0Ov
— Africa Amateur Championship (@AfricaAmChamp) February 24, 2024

Former Track & Field legends win gold in Norway!

What starts here really changes the world. Three Texas Exes claimed gold medals at the World Athletics Indoor Track and Field Championships over the weekend in Glasgow, Norway. Ryan Crouser, the man himself, got the action started by winning his first-ever gold medal at the World Indoor Championship meet with a meet-record throw of 22.51m. He now owns gold medals from the Olympics and both indoor and outdoor world championships. He's just that guy! Our Bowerman winner Julien Alfred just can't lose, can she? Julien stormed to St. Lucia's first-ever medal at any championship competition with by winning gold in the 60-meter dash with her world-leading time of 6.98. Julien hasn't lost a 60-meter race since 2022. Flo Knows everyone! And our final gold medalist was the one and only Tara Davis-Woodhall. Tara soared to a jump of 7.07m to bring home her first ever gold medal at the World Championships. Any of her final four jumps would've won the competition, and she is still the only competitor to jump over 7 meters this season.

Woke up with some hardware 🤘🥇#WhatStartsHere x #HookEm pic.twitter.com/h2xUmJAq0t
— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) March 4, 2024

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. – Couldn't be prouder of all our guys representing us at the NFL Combine!

Awesome watching our Horns put on a show in workouts & drills and what a joy it is seeing them standing out in press conferences as well. No surprise with this group of incredible guys that were so much fun to work with and are such outstanding representatives of @TexasFootball🤘🏻 pic.twitter.com/WOU62kqiWM
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) March 2, 2024

P.S. – Get your Horns Up and join us at SXSW!

If you're coming to #SXSW, join us at the Hook 'Em House at Antone's for #UTatSXSW! https://t.co/TQErCEy9cY
— Jay Hartzell (@JCHartzell) March 1, 2024

P.S. – This is Culture!