2018 Texas Invite Day One Finals Live Recap

Texas Hall of Fame Invite

The 2018 Texas Hall of Fame Invite starts tonight with a grand total of four heats of the 800 free relays, with two each from the men and the women. Among the teams that will be here tonight, the Texas women finished 5th and the USC women finished 13th in this event at last season’s NCAA championships. The Longhorn women only lost one senior from last year’s relay, Rebecca Millard. The top time in the country so far this year belongs to Stanford, whose quartet went 6:59.66 at the Ohio State Invite.

The men’s side will feature five different teams that finished in the top 16 in this event at NCAAs last season: Texas (3rd), Stanford (8th), Harvard (11th), USC (12th), and Arizona (16th). None of those teams lost more than one senior, and three of teams will bring in a freshman who ranked in the top five in the 200 free among the men in the high school class of 2018: Drew Kibler (Texas), Alexei Sancov (USC), and Jack LeVant (Stanford), all of whom are likely to be on their team’s A-relays this evening. Florida currently has the fastest time this season, a 6:15.04 from the Georgia Tech Invite.

Women’s 800 Free Relay – Timed Finals

  1. USC, 6:56.33
  2. Texas, 6:58.61
  3. Arizona, 7:02.63

Louise Hansson’s 1:42.56 leadoff leg for the Trojans put her past Siobahn’s Haughey for the top individual 200 time this season. Tatum Wade (1:43.73), Kirsten Vose (1:44.11), and Madison Wright (1:45.93) gave USC the lead from beginning to end, touching over two seconds ahead of the Longhorns and moving ahead of Stanford for the top time this season.

The Longhorn women kept it close throughout the race, getting a 1:43.95 leadoff from Claire Adams that makes her only the 4th woman to break 1:44 so far this season. Texas got a pair of 1:45s from Evie Pfeiffer and Julia Cook, with Joanna Evans splitting 1:43.84 sandwiched between them. The Longhorns’ time of 6:58.61 also moves them ahead of Stanford and gives them the 2nd-fastest time this season.

Arizona looked strong here as well; their time of 7:02.63 moves them past Louisville and puts them 4th-fastest this season. The Wildcats relay was highlighted by a pair of 1:44s from Kirsten Jacobsen and Daniela Georges.

Wisconsin got splits of 1:43.45 from Beata Nelson and 1:44.43 from Lillie Hosack, while Remedy Rule split 1:44.43 on the Texas B relay.

Men’s 800 Free Relay – Timed Finals

  1. Texas, 6:14.29
  2. Stanford, 6:17.14
  3. Arizona, 6:18.70

We got at least some of the battle we were expecting from the freshmen.  Texas’s Drew Kibler out-dueled Stanford freshman Jack LeVant on the lead off leg, 1:32.20 to 1:32.61.  Those are lifetime best for both men, and move both past Florida’s Khader Baqlah (1:32.91) for the fastest time this season.  Jeff Newkirk (1:33.15), Austin Katz (1:35.60), and Townley Haas (1:33.34) easily maintained the Longhorns’ lead, and their time of 6:14.29 now eclipses Florida’s 6:15.05 for the number one spot in the country. Jake Sannem actually had the fastest relay split of any Longhorn, anchoring Texas’s B-relay in 1:32.70.

Stanford took 2nd in 6:17.14, with Mason Gonzalez (1:35.41), Will Macmillian (1:35.04), and James Murphy (1:34.08) building on LeVant’s strong leadoff leg, as Stanford moves up to #3 in this event this season. Notably, this relay lacked Grant Shoults, who attended Golden Goggles last week, and appears to be traveling with the team, but has yet to compete this season.

Arizona took 3rd with a 6:18.70 that ties them with NC State for the 5th-fastest time this season. The Wildcats got a pair of 1:33 splits from Jorge Iga and Brooks Fail.

Notably, Harvard’s relay DQ’d for the 2nd-straight year here. According to live results, the DQ was the result of an “early take-off swimmer #3” which was Corban Rawls. Dean Farris then anchored in 1:32.09.

Time Trials

  • John Shebat swam the 200 IM and moved past NC State’s Andreas Vazaios for the number one spot in the NCAA this season by the narrowest of margins, stopping the clock in 1:42.43, 0.01s ahead of Vazaios and a lifetime best for Shebat.
  • Four Longhorn men time trialed the 200 free, led by Matthew Willenbring in 1:34.66.

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Krazy Koach
5 years ago

Arizona Lighting it up

Snarky
5 years ago

Texas is high tech. Really on top of those computer things.

Wethorn
Reply to  Snarky
5 years ago

the lack of live results isn’t a Texas thing, it’s a swimming thing. As a sport no one operating these meets seems to give a shit about the fan experience. If we as a sport cater only to those in the swim center, then we’re focused primarily on the parents of current swimmers. That’s a really dumb strategy to grow our sport. This site has finally given fans, globally, an opportunity to follow our sport almost real time and with an amazing breadth of commentary and insights, from the writers who cover the sport to the posters who build on that. But the weak link that frustrates us all at every big meet is the disconnect between the people running… Read more »

JP input is too short
Reply to  Wethorn
5 years ago

I think one of the things that makes live results and such more confusing to run is that the Meet Manager interface is still stuck in the 1990s. It’s basically a skin on top of a Microsoft Access database file.

Now, granted, it only takes a couple extra clicks to get the live results up and running and updated, but it isn’t super intuitive.

Superfan
5 years ago

No Shouts or DeVine for Stanford. They will be good in March….hopefully! At least 5th!

andy majeske
5 years ago

I can’t find this on Meet Mobile, and the live results link isn’t working. It should be over by now…

Bigboy21
Reply to  andy majeske
5 years ago

Agreed, meet mobile is only giving 2017 meet and before results and accordingly to the time line it was over 10 minutes ago

andy majeske
Reply to  Robert Gibbs
5 years ago

they are up there now, Kibbler 132.2 leadoff, Levant 132.6, SAnnem 1.32.7 split, Harvard A DQ so no Dean time

USA
Reply to  andy majeske
5 years ago

Look up “Texas Invite”

Bigboy21
Reply to  USA
5 years ago

Its up and racing, or should I say raced!

Ervin
5 years ago

I’d love to see Claire Adams do well this year. She was really excelling in the 100 back LC in 2016 until she got hurt right before OT. She was posting up some impressive times, especially at a time were the US had no clear stand out in that event. Missy wasnt swimming well at that time (at least in the 100), Baker and Smoliga hadn’t emerged as clear favorites, even Coughlin was still being considered and talked about as an option. Anyway, best of luck!!!

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