Swimming Video edit courtesy of Coleman Hodges. Interview recorded by Loretta Race.
Meet coverage as reported by SwimSwam / Jared Anderson
Final Scores
Michigan 183, Texas 170
Michigan 242.5, Indiana 110.5
Michigan 273, Louisville 116
Texas 222, Indiana 131
Texas 217, Louisville 136
Indiana 186.5, Louisville 166.5
Michigan got stung by the DQ bee on night 1 of the Quad, but got their act together in a big way to win both relays Saturday morning. That started with a huge 1:26.96 in the 200 medley relay off the bat.
That stands up as the top time in the nation by eight tenths of a second. The big struggle for Michigan’s medleys last year was finding a backstroker, but current freshman Aaron Whitaker filled that gap with the fastest backstroke split of the field at 22.41. His teammates were equally impressive: Bruno Ortiz was 23.95 on breaststroke, among the first guys we’ve seen crack the 24-second barrier so far this season. Dylan Bosch split 21.21 on butterfly and freshman Paul Powers went 19.39 on the anchor leg.
Showing its dominance, Michigan went 1-2 in the relay. A few more notable splits: Jeremy Raisky split 21.00 on the butterfly leg of Michigan’s B relay, faster than Bosch’s split. Richard Funk almost went 23 on the breaststroke leg for that team, putting up a 24.02. Joseph Schooling, the highly-touted freshman for Texas, split a blistering 20.82 on the medley.
But in a situation familiar to Texas fans as well as Wolverine ones, the team struggled on breaststroke and faded to 6th overall.
Texas sophomore Jack Conger was all over the 200 back, going 1:45.18 for the ‘Horns. That’ll be a tough event come NCAAs, but Conger has the talent to compete with the best of them, if he chooses to swim this event in the post-season. Louisville’s Grigory Tarasevich was fast, going 1:46.30 for second.
That sent Texas on a run that would span the rest of the individual events. The 100 free showed off another Texas youngster, Brett Ringgold, who crushed a 44.11. The freshman trailed Indiana’s Anze Tavcar by just .02 at the 50 turn, but made up the difference to win by a tenth. Exactly one more tenth behind was Michigan’s Justin Glanda in 44.31.
Texas sophomore Will Licon paced the 200 breast, using an aggressive front-half to beat Michigan’s senior Richard Funk 1:57.11 to 1:58.80. Aggressiveness really paid off for Licon, who went out a half second faster than Funk and still had the field’s best closing split.
Once again, it was Texas that won the 500 free, getting a nation-leading 4:21.84 from freshman Jonathan Roberts. Roberts, part of that excellent recruiting class for coach Eddie Reese, beat a very good swimmer by nearly 5 seconds in Michigan junior and Danish national Anders Nielsen.
Then in the 100 fly, it was the freshman Schooling who picked up the win, parlaying two fast medley relay splits so far into a 47.92 that kept the Longhorns streak alive by the narrowest of margins. Schooling beat Michigan’s Pete Brumm by .01 and Aaron Whitaker by .04. This race is pretty representative of how the meet went. Though it seems Texas should have been the clear favorites based on how many events they won, Michigan’s depth was overpowering, and their relay prowess basically made up everything they lost to Texas on the relays. For two teams that could be in the NCAA title hunt, it’s an interesting contrast is lineup styles at this early point in the season.
The final individual swimming event was the 400 IM, where Texas’s Licon came back for his second win in a short time. Licon once again beat a Michigan swimmer in a tight finish, going 3:50.49 to eke out the win over Dylan Bosch’s 3:50.69.
The only individual event Texas didn’t win went to a former Longhorn. NCAA champion diver Michael Hixon, transferred to Indiana, won on 3-meter, scoring 394.45 points. Indiana’s other stud diver, freshman James Connor, didn’t compete in this event after taking 3rd on 3-meter.
Then it was the 400 free relay, where Michigan rose back to the top, nipping Texas by half a second to ice a hard-fought win. The back-half came up clutch for the Wolverines, with freshman Paul Powers throwing down a 43.46 and Bruno Ortiz finishing in 43.3. Texas tried to match with a 43.3 from Jack Conger, but again weren’t quite deep enough to match Michigan’s squad. The Wolverines finished in 2:55.47, Texas in 2:56.12.
Indiana took third but had the best leadoff split in Anze Tavcar‘s 43.88. They led the first 200 before giving way to Michigan and Texas over the back half.
Michigan came out on top in the 4-way dual meet, beating all three opponents. Texas topped Louisville and Indiana, and Indiana beat Louisville by 20.
