2017 Big 12 Men’s Champs Fan Guide: Anticipated Races from Texas Stars

2017 Men’s Big 12 Championships

While not one of the larger conferences, the Big 12 features one of the most exciting teams in the NCAA– the Texas Longhorns. Led by legendary coach Eddie Reese, the Texas men will take to the pool in their last big competition before the NCAA Championships.

We’ll get a chance to see Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling compete after he won the 100 fly last year at this meet with a 44.62. His only other individual event was the 100 free, where he won the B final, while he swam on all five relays. Perhaps his most impressive split was a 19.94 on the 200 medley, swimming the butterfly leg.

In addition to Schooling, 2016 Olympians Townley HaasJack Conger, and Clark Smith will all be racing this week, along with defending NCAA 200 breast champion Will Licon.

SCHEDULE

Wednesday

  • 200 Medley Relay
  • 1 Meter Diving- Men
  • 800 Free Relay

Thursday

  • 500 Free
  • 200 IM
  • 50 Free
  • 1 Meter Diving- Women
  • 400 Medley Relay

Friday

  • 3 Meter Diving- Women
  • 400 IM
  • 100 Fly
  • 200 Free
  • 100 Breast
  • 100 Back
  • 3 Meter Diving- Men
  • 200 Free Relay

Saturday

  • Platform Diving- Men
  • 200 Back
  • 100 Free
  • 1650 Free
  • 200 Breast
  • 200 Fly
  • Platform Diving- Women
  • 400 Free Relay

STARS

Texas – Jack Conger (senior butterflier/freestyler), Joseph Schooling (junior butterflier/freestyler), Clark Smith (senior freestyler), Will Licon (senior breaststroker/IMer), Brett Ringgold (junior sprint freestyler), Tate Jackson (sophomore sprinter), Townley Haas (sophomore freestyler), John Shebat (sophomore backstroker) – Depth and top end speed everywhere, and while the breaststrokes aren’t incredibly stacked behind Licon, well… they have Licon. He will likely switch from the 400 IM to 100 breast and contend for two breaststroke titles at NCAAs rather than 1. Haas v. Smith, Conger v. Schooling are two of the most anticipated intra-squad battles set for next week.

TCU – Connor Dobbs (junior freestyler), Garrett Hills (senior freestyler/butterflier), Jakub Swierczynski (junior breaststroker) – Breaststroker Swierczynski is a transfer from Wheeling Jesuit, and he could make a run at one of several Texas breaststrokers sitting behind Licon.

West Virginia – Merwane El Merini (sophomore sprinter), Chris McMahon (junior distance freestyler), Traydon Saladin (freshman freestyler/backstroker)  Frenchman El Merini is a bright spot on their roster– the only man to have cracked 20 seconds in a 50 free thus far in the season. It doesn’t look like IM stud Nate Carr has swum at any meets with the WVU team this year, although he has raced unattached. But, if he’s on the roster, and will have a large impact if he’s swimming at Big 12s.

SHOWDOWNS

200 BUTTERFLY – Jack Conger and Joseph Schooling have history, and assuming Schooling does this event this year (he swam this at NCAA’s, but not Big 12’s, in 2016), we could be in for an electric race. Conger seems to always fall just short of his teammate, but Schooling dropped the 200 fly at the Olympics to focus on the 100 free instead, which might suggest that he hasn’t been training for the longer fly race as much as in years prior. Conger was out-touched by just .09 by Schooling at NCAA’s in this event last year, and this could be a chance for him to hit back.

500 FREESTYLE – Another intra-squad showdown, this race will also feature two men who will be vying for the national title in March. Townley Haas won this race easily with a 4:12.63, while Clark Smith couldn’t improve upon his 4:16.35 from prelims and wound up in fourth. Smith has had trouble delivering at big meets, but he is a man of incredible talent (lest we forget that he went a 4:08.82 at the 2015 Texas Invite) who could certainly make this a fantastic race.

50 FREESTYLE – Brett Ringgold and Tate Jackson will go head-to-head in this race after Jackson edged out his teammate by a couple tenths with a 19.25 last year. Potentially in the mix is WVU sophomore Merwane El Merini, who was fifth last year (19.85) and is the fastest returning non-Longhorn.

SELECTIONS

This conference is all Texas, and they will win by an insurmountable margin. The race will be between WVU and TCU, both teams that are pretty evenly matched. West Virginia scored 88 points more than TCU last season, but Nate Carr’s status on the team is in question and TCU looks to have more depth this year (along with faster relays). It should be close between the two teams, though.

  1. Texas
  2. TCU
  3. West Virginia

In This Story

36
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

36 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JJG
7 years ago

Smith and Haas in the 500 had to be one of the most exciting races. I say smith is 4:10 Haas is 4:12

xenon
7 years ago

Time trials have started and the results are on meet mobile. Licon 51.15 in the 100 breast

tea rex
7 years ago

Peter Vanderkaay’s AR will stand for about 1 more month.

NYC Unicorn
7 years ago

The only fireworks will be in time trials this morning

NYC Unicorn
Reply to  NYC Unicorn
7 years ago

51.1

Swimfan
7 years ago

Shocking turn of events NC State is switching conferences to stop the 20 year streak by Texas

ShotgunWillie
Reply to  Swimfan
7 years ago

**37 years

Reply to  Swimfan
7 years ago

That would be a total professional wrestling move, but I would love covering it so much

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Just another training meet for Texas.

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Texas is all about NCAAs. I’ve learned that conference championships are important for the universities but as they are in a very weak conference, their swimmers can swim not much rested this week and still win by a huge margin. And I presume a university prefers shining at NCAAs than one month earlier. You look idiot if you swim extremely fast one month before the big meet and are unable to improve at NCAAs or worse, if you swim slower. Not that kind of debates about Texas. We know they will peak at the right time and will deliver when it counts. Mr Reese is a master for that.

ShotgunWillie
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

We are talking about the men…not women, right?

Klorn8d
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

I’d say swimming faster at conference makes you look idiot less than if you say you look idiot

Mikeh
7 years ago

It’s so sad that so few universities in the Big 12 have men’s programs.

completelyconquered
Reply to  Mikeh
7 years ago

Yes, it is. In a place where football is king, you would think that swimming is greatly supported.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

Read More »