Forty Acres Insider: March 31

Chris Del Conte head shot 2025

Longhorn Nation,

LIGHT THE TOWER ORANGE, Men's Swimming and Diving is your 2025 National Champion! And we're doing just that tonight, so come on by the UT Tower lighting ceremony around 8 p.m. CT and celebrate with Coach Bowman and the team! It's a BIG MONDAY for sure with Coach Schaefer and Women's Basketball tipping it off in Birmingham tonight for a spot in the Final Four. If you're not there in person, plan on tuning in to ESPN (or listening on AM 1300 The Zone/the stream at TexasLonghorns.com) and help cheer on our ladies. Get decked out in Burnt Orange, put those Horns up high, and let's make it a great day!

LIGHT THE TOWER🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/nwY3crjAWR
— Texas Men's Swimming & Diving (@TexasMSD) March 30, 2025

We were so fired up that we had to push out the Forty Acres Insider early to celebrate a great week that was and a Monday that prepares us to kick off April! Our Longhorns came, they saw, and they conquered last week, as in addition to the Swimming and Diving National Championship and Women's Basketball's Sweet 16 victory on a phenomenal Saturday, Baseball and Softball got SEC series wins, Men's Tennis swept a pair of matches, Women's Tennis finished its road trip on a high note, Beach Volleyball registered another top-10 victory, and Rowing was as dominant as ever in its 2025 season debut during what was a sensational Longhorn weekend!

The @TexasMSD National Championship🏆 for @coach_bowman's Longhorns was fueled by 7️⃣ individual/relay titles ➡️ Hubert Kos (100-back, 200-back, 200-IM), Rex Maurer (400-IM, 500-free), Luke Hobson (200-free) & 200-medley relay🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/G86C9MaIbl
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) March 30, 2025

Now back to that National Championship! It was a TIDAL WAVE OF TITLES for our Men's Swimming and Diving squad as, count 'em up, six individual and one relay national champions fueled the victory. We knew that Coach Bowman was the absolute best in the business when we hired him last spring, but holy cow, he got it done in year one and that's back-to-back Natties for him. And how 'bout those Longhorns that touched first for individual titles?! Hubert Kós got three of them (100-back, 200-back, 200-IM), Rex Maurer won two (400-IM, 500-free) and Luke Hobson (200-free) made it six. Hubert got another with Nate Germonprez, Will Modglin and Chris Guiliano on the 200 medley relay on Wednesday's opening night that sent the message that our Longhorns were here and ready to stampede! Our Horns raised that trophy high and brought home the 16th National Championship in the illustrious history of Texas Men's Swimming and Diving! And y'all know the tradition, the crowning celebration was a good 'ol pool party (and a Tower Lighting tonight)!!

TEXAS ON TOP🤘😤#HookEm pic.twitter.com/TDjXqNEFEa
— Texas Men's Swimming & Diving (@TexasMSD) March 30, 2025

And talk about the PRIDE AND WINNING TRADITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS folks, that's our 67th all-time National Championship, and we've had at least one in every full academic year (not including the COVID shortened 2019-20 season) for 10-straight years! How 'bout that for a flex at the 'ol water cooler for y'all?!

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT FOLKS; Coach Vic and our No. 1-seeded Longhorns are playing TCU (6 p.m. CT/ESPN) for a spot in the NCAA Tourney Final Four. Yeah baby, that hard-fought, gutty display of Texas Fight in a 67-59 oh so sweet victory over Tennessee not only signified the better shade of orange, but advanced our squad to the Elite Eight for the fourth time in five years in the Vic Schaefer era (including his previous stop, he's been to the Elite Eight in seven of the last eight seasons). Madison, Rori and the vets did their thing in that one, but how 'bout our freshman phenom Bryanna Preston putting the pedal to the metal with 12 critical points and three steals to help us get over the top on the Vols?! Now we're looking to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2003 and fourth time in our illustrious program's history, so we need to bring that Longhorn pride and passion worldwide to support the ladies! If you're not in Birmingham with us, get that watch party set, tune in and let's Hook 'Em!

in state showdown 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/92yiglosnf
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) March 30, 2025

Before we get too far along, I do want to give a huge shoutout to our incredible staff that managed a barrage of storms last week to allow the 97th running of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays to be a grand success once again. Rain or shine — which we had plenty of both — they forged ahead! It is indeed the best track and field meet in the land! And how cool was it to hang out with some of our Longhorn Track and Field Olympians? Y'all showed up and showed out for that, my friends! Congrats to our seven Longhorns who won a total of eight titles, and of course, let's put our Horns Up again for our Honorary Referee Kathy Harston and her longtime dedication to Texas Athletics. Hook 'Em, Kathy!

Coach Schloss and No. 7 Baseball rolled with the punches as weather altered the schedule in Columbia, but our Texas Fight knocked out Missouri — outscoring the Tigers 29-9 in three games — in a sweep. Folks, that's three-straight SEC series wins and an 8-1 start in league play for our 23-3 Longhorns. We're back at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Tuesday night against Texas State (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+) and then the Georgia Bulldogs come to town for an SEC weekend series. We'll see you there! Meanwhile No. 1 Softball faced similar schedule-altering challenges while dodging storms in Starkville, and like Baseball they came home with SEC series triumph number three (all three over top-25 opponents to boot!). That makes it 7-2 in season one of SEC play, and our Horns are on their way to Missouri this weekend with a sparkling 34-3 record overall.

No. 1 Rowing hit the water for its season opener at the San Diego Crew Classic, and just like they always do, Coach O'Neill and our Horns came away with a bevy of victories, winning three of the grand finals. No. 4 Men's Tennis kept the good times rollin' too, taking down two more SEC foes with convincing wins over Kentucky and South Carolina at the Texas Tennis Center last weekend. It's on to rivalry week for Coach Berque's squad with a Red River Rivalry at OU on Thursday (6 p.m. CT) and a trip to College Station for a Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown event on Saturday (2 p.m. CT). Meanwhile, Women's Tennis is back at home after splitting a pair of road matches this past weekend with a Sunday win over Kentucky. They'll be hosting Alabama on Friday (Noon CT) before traveling to Mississippi State on Sunday (11 a.m. CT).

We're one week in, and trust me, Coach Sark and Football are putting in the work! We'll be getting you all the details on our Fabulous Fan Fest soon, so keep Saturday, April 26, free on your calendar to come join us for one fantastic football family reunion. It's going to be a blast as we get ready for the football season. It seems far away, but it always seems to get here before you know it!

What a day today is, and we have another great week ahead as top-ranked Men's Golf heads to Augusta for the Haskins Award Invitational, we have a Women's Golf trio (Farah O'Keefe, Lauren Kim and Cindy Hsu) also going there to compete in the Augusta National Women's Amateur from April 2-5, Beach Volleyball travels to Tallahassee, and Track and Field competes in Houston, too. Hold on folks, April is upon us, and as the outstanding old school song goes, AIN'T NOTHIN' GONNA BREAK OUR STRIDE. NOBODY'S GONNA SLOW US DOWN. Get your Horns Up!

let's have ourselves a week y'all 🤘#HookEm | @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/vWhIHYkHRt
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 31, 2025

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — Yes indeed!

if it ain't burnt... IT AIN'T TURNT 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/tFrjLwXJYC
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) March 29, 2025

P.S. — Happy you're here Coach Miller!

everybody knows ATX is the place to be 🤘#HookEm | @finebaumshow pic.twitter.com/YASaQiaV2V
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) March 26, 2025

now we go 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/P64mljqUn5
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) March 27, 2025

P.S. — We see you, Blair!

.@wbca1981 thirty under 30 🤩🤘#HookEm | @Blair__Schaefer pic.twitter.com/Z4bYCb7jJY
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) March 27, 2025

P.S. — Can't thank our Olympians enough for taking time to hang out with y'all, what a crowd they drew, too!

can't wait to see y'all 🤘#FloKnows x #HookEm pic.twitter.com/5PDsLomx5V
— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) March 28, 2025

P.S. — Winning!

Make it 8️⃣ @TexasLonghorns programs that have earned a No. 1 national ranking at some point in 2024-25 season🤘🏻

Current No. 1-ranked teams: @TexasMGolf, @TexasRowing, @TexasSoftball & @TexasMSD

Previous No. 1-ranked teams: @TexasWBB, @TexasFootball, @TexasMTN & @TexasVolleyball https://t.co/wKyU4n9ReW
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) March 27, 2025

P.S. — We love y'all!

Burnt Orange over everything 🤘#HookEm | #LonghornFriday pic.twitter.com/sxTQXa68aw
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 28, 2025

P.S. — That's a whole lot of Texas Fight and Winning!

The @TexasMSD National Championship🏆 for @coach_bowman's Longhorns was fueled by 7️⃣ individual/relay titles ➡️ Hubert Kos (100-back, 200-back, 200-IM), Rex Maurer (400-IM, 500-free), Luke Hobson (200-free) & 200-medley relay🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/G86C9MaIbl
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) March 30, 2025

P.S. — Always such a joy honoring our seniors!