In the face of increased competition at the inaugural Eddie Reese Texas Showdown on Friday and Saturday, Texas swimming demonstrated an ability to compete and perform on the individual level and as a program.
The Texas men’s program earned decisive wins over Arizona State, NC State and Virginia, accumulating seven event wins throughout the two-day meet.
Arizona State, a team ranked at No. 4 going into the meet, fell 34 points short of Texas, with the final score being 193-159.
Sophomore Rex Maurer earned first place in the 500-meter freestyle, with senior Luke Hobson, senior David Johnston and graduate student Coby Carrozza obtaining the following three spots. The Longhorns also swept the first three places in the 200 individual medley, with junior Hubert Kos finishing first, sophomore Will Modglin in second and sophomore Nate Germonprez earning the final spot on the podium.
Texas swimmers delivered in several other competitive races, but this meet is just one of many challenges that the spring season will present.
“This meet has excellent competition, but we have to balance where it falls in the calendar with what our real goals are,” said head coach Bob Bowman.
These “real goals,” according to Bowman, are winning both the Southeastern Conference title and the national title. Bowman did this as the head coach at Arizona State just last year, and as of Saturday, he has officially coached Texas to its first victory against the title-defending team that is now led by Bowman’s former associate head coach, Herbie Behm.
As for the women’s team, head coach Carol Capitani was proud of her team’s ability to rehearse for the SEC championships and ultimately earn a second-place finish behind No. 1 Virginia.
“Virginia is the best team in the country, hands down, but just to go up against the best in the country, Olympians, world record holders, and hold your own and still compete is great practice for (the) SEC,” Capitani said.
Freshman Jillian Cox won the 500-meter free and several swimmers moved up multiple places on the Texas all-time leaderboard, despite placing second to the swimmers of Virginia. Graduate student Emma Sticklen actually broke the school record in the 100 fly on her way to a second-place finish against Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh, who holds the world record in the event.
The meet helped further establish Texas’ legitimacy as a program on both the men’s and women’s sides, and the fans helped deliver the message. A record-breaking crowd of 2,331 fans showed up at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center on Friday night, and the swimmers returned the favor by providing them with tight races and an action-filled evening.
“(The crowd) really helps the kids,” Bowman said. “It makes it a lot more fun, and I hope we just keep doing that.”
