800 Free Relay Pool Record, Foster’s 4:15, Highlight Texas-TCU LCM Time Trials

Texas v. Texas Christian (Men)

• January 21-22, 2022
• Texas Swim Center, Austin, TX
• SCY (Day 1)
• LCM (Day 2)
• Dual Meet Format (Day 1)
• Live Results
• Combined Day 1 and Day 2 Results
• Texas Day 2 Release 

The day after swimming a normal dual meet, the TCU and Texas men jumped back into the pool at the Texas Swim Center, but this time the swimming took the form of a long course time trials session.

Swimmers from both teams presumably donned tech suits, as there were quite a few notably-fast times for this point in the season.

We’ll skip to the end, where Texas trotted out a 800 free relay that broke the pool record. Drew Kibler, who made the US Olympic team in this event, led off in 1:48.95. Coby Carrozza followed with a very fast 1:47.97 split, over a second faster than his lifetime best of 1:49.10. Freshman Luke Hobson continued his strong showing this season with a 1:49.11, just shy of his 1:49.10 lifetime best flat start. Olympic Trials 200 free finalist Carson Foster anchored with a 1:48.34, as the quartet demolished the previous record with a total time of 7:14.37.

To put that into a bit of context, that time is faster than five countries swam in the prelims of the 800 free relay in prelims at the 2019 World Championships.

There were plenty of fast individual swims too. Foster, no stranger to swimming fast in-season, earlier in the session popped a 4:15.46 in the 400 IM. That appears to be the fastest time among US swimmers this season, surpassing Bobby Finke’s 4:17.39 from December’s U.S. Open.

Caspar Corbeau, who represents the Netherlands internationally, swam a 1:00.85 in the 100 breast that will be the fastest time in the USA Swimming database this season if it appears there. That list is currently led by Bulgarian and University of Tennessee swimmer Lyubomir Epitropov, who swam a 1:01.14 at the Tennessee Invite time trials.

TCU freshman Geremia Freri, an Italian native, had a strong swim in the 400 free. His time of 3:56.01 would put him at #5 in the USA Swimming database this season.

Several other swimmers set lifetime bests, or otherwise had notable swims.

Longhorn Peter Larson led off Texas’ 400 free relay with a 50.33, clipping his previous 100 free lifetime best of 50.38. Cameron Auchinachie followed that with a 49.40 split, while his lifetime best is a 49.63 from 2019. Kibler and Daniel Krueger split 49.12 and 49.36, respectively.

In the individual 100 free, Texas’ Sam Artmann set his first new best time in over three years in the event with a 51.25 that clipped 0.45s off of his previous best of 51.70 from 3018.

Auchinachie led off Texas’ 400 medley relay with a 56.18, lowering his 100 back best from a 56.63. Following him, Corbeau split 1:00.27, Cole Crane split 53.33, and Krueger anchored in 50.11. Their combined time of 3:39.89 just missed the Texas pool record of 3:39.26.

Each school has one more dual meet before squaring off again at the Big 12 Championships at West Virginia University in February. While Texas particularly has their short-term focus on racing in yards, as they’ll be competing for yet another NCAA championship come March, they also have plenty of swimmers who will be hoping to earn a spot on long course international team. Especially with this month’s Pro Swim Series event canceled, a LCM timed trials helps swimmers get in some 50m racing experience, even though the status of this summer’s World Championships (and then presumably the US Trials in April) is apparently now in question.