2015 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 25 – Saturday, February 28
- Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center – University of Texas
- Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Central Time)
- Psych Sheets
- Live ResultsÂ
After one day of competition both the Texas men and women are in the lead. On the women’s side they’re leading over Iowa State 80-68. The men are only up by two points against their closet competitors, the Texas Christian University, 117-115.
WOMENS 500 FREE
It was a Texas battle in the women’s 500 freestyle as Kelsey Leneave led the way to a 1-2-3 finish in the first individual pool event of the 2015 BIG 12 Championships.
Leneave cranked a 4:43.01 to claim gold over Katilin Pawlowicz, her fellow teammate and Texas senior.
The two posted very similar splits as to what they did in prelims, however it was Leneave who started to run away with things on the last 100.
With 50 to go, Leneave was in second. On that last 50 she dropped a 27.54 to claim gold and win the event with Pawlowicz finishing second in 4:43.44.
Taking bronze was Sammie Hashbarger in 4:48.91
MENS 500 FREE
Another event gave way to another win for Texas. The Longhorn men claimed some serious points in the 500 free final with all the swimmers first through fifth coming from Texas.
Clark Smith was the winner in an NCAA ‘A’ time of 4:13.71. He was about two and a half seconds off the meet record of 4:11.41 set by Michael Klueh back in 2008.
The time was good enough for gold, as he beat out freshman swimmer Jonathan Roberts. Roberts rocked a 4:15.08 to finish a second and change behind Smith.
Third was Texas senior Clay Youngquist in 4:16.92. He was right with Roberts up until the 400 meter mark where Youngquist lost him splitting about a second and a half faster than him on the last 100.
WOMENS 200 IM
Maidsyn Cox struck gold in the 200m IM, winning the event by almost two seconds with her time of 1:56.94. Cox had the fastest fly, breast, and free splits of the field. her most impressive split was arguably the freestyle where she came home in a 27.89.
The win for Cox was her second straight BIG 12 title in the event.
Skylar Smith of Texas was second behind her in 1:58.82. She stayed with cox for the first 100 but wasn’t able to hold on during the second half of the race.
Completing the Texas sweep was Tasija Karosas with a time of 2:00.42. She was ahead of Smith at the 100 and just three one-hundredths of a second behind Cox, but fell well behind the two with a 37.22 breaststroke split. She came back by over a second on Smith on the last 50 with a split of 28.06.
MENS 200 IM
The 200m IM was one of the most intense battles of the meet so far, and the outcome gave Will Licon the number one nationally ranked time in the United States.
Licon rocked a 1:41.67 to break the previous BIG 12 record held by retired Texas swimmer and Olympic gold medallist Ricky Berens. Berens swam that time back in 2009.
Not only was that time a BIG 12 record, but it is currently the number one swim in the nation this season. The previous fastest time was a 1:42.03 by Darian Townsend.
Licon wasn’t able to run away with it as he had to put up a big fight with freshman swimmer Joseph Schooling during the race. Schooling, a fly specialist, took the lead after the first 50 splitting a wicked fast 21.94.
Schooling wasn’t too far ahead of Licon who pulled ahead by four tenths of a seconds at the halfway point. Licon rocked a 29.42 breaststroke split to take a lead by over a second going into that last 50, and came home in 25.02 to secure the victory.
Schooling’s time ranks him fifth in the nation, kicking Chase Kalisz out of the top five.
WOMENSÂ 50 FREE
Gretchen Jaques grabbed the win in the womens 50 freestyle en route to a 1-2-3 Longhorns finish. Jaques was a 22.21 to win the race falling three-tenths of a second shy of the NCAA ‘A’ standard.
She did however win by a long shot as second place finisher Brynne Wong was way back in 22.71.
Rebecca Milard was able to round out the top three with a 22.82, just beating fourth place finisher Jaimee Gillmore too the wall.
Gillmore, a swimmer from West Virginia was a 22.21.
MENS 50 FREE
Winning the 50 freestyle amongst some of the top sprinters was Texas junior Matt Ellis. Ellis dropped a 19.57 to win the race by just two one-hundredths ahead of West Virginia’s Tim Squires.
Squired clocked in at 19.59 for second, beating out Texas freshman Brett Ringgold by just over a tenth.
Ringgold took third in 19.70.
Displaying more sprint depth on the texas men’s roster was Tripp Cooper. He was out of a medal position with his time of 19.84 and was the last swimmer under 20 seconds in the race.
WOMEN 1 METER
WOMENS 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY
The Texas women grabbed another win as Tasija Karosas, Gretchen Jaques, Kelsey Leneave, and Rebecca Millard took to the blocks for the 400 medley relay.
The end results for the Longhorn ladies was an NCAA ‘A’ time of 3:33.87 and a first place finish by just over six seconds.
Karosas took control of the lead with a 53.60 backstroke split which was just slightly faster than the 53.68 Yulduz Kuchkarova from Kansas dropped. It was Jaques however who gave Texas the huge lead as nobody was close to her split of 58.56.
Leneave jumped in the water and expanded the lead with the fastest fly split of 53.18. Millard came home in 48.53 sporting the fastest freestyle leg of the evening.
After the relay, the Texas women led the overall points totals with 402 to Iowa State’s 205.5.
 MENS 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY
Sweeping the events today were the Texas men who threw down a very solid medley relay to cap off the day.
Leading the way at the 100m mark was Aaron Gustafson of the Texas ‘B’ team. He rocked a 46.26 backstroke split with Andrew Marsh of West Virginia just one one-hundredth behind him.
Austin Temple, also on the Texas ‘B’ team, kept the lead splitting a 51.99 on the breaststroke leg.
Trip Cooper kept the lead although Joseph Schooling from the Texas men’s ‘A’ team was lightning fast in 45.20 to creep up on Temple and get the ‘A’ team within striking distance.
Jack Conger entered the water for the ‘A’ team and touched the wall first after out-splitting the field with a 42.26. West Virginia was second in 3:11.12.
Mens Scores
- Texas 355
- TCU 233
- West Virginia 221
Womens Scores
- Texas 402
- Iowa State 205.5
- TCU 158.5
- Kansas 150
- West Virginia 140
Women’s scores for Iowa State and Kansas?
Without a clue how the relays will be constructed, it’s safe to say that Texas will be a legitimate threat in all of them next month. We all may have different ideas for who to put where, but the bottom line is most of these guys are already qualified and still “in season” with a little rest. I trust the coaching staff to put together an epic NCAAs lineup, and fully expect this team to turn heads, and take college swimming to a whole new level.
In addition, Cal has always got some magic up it’s sleeve, NC State and Alabama are well-oiled sprinting machines, and Michigan and Florida are turning heads as well. I cannot wait to see… Read more »
Pretty certain Licon had a safe start as well…?
Keep in mind temple’s 51.99 was with a “safe” relay exchange for the backstrokers
Darmody, Licon, Schooling, Conger/Murray = 3:03 in March
Or, Conger, Licon, Schooling, and Murray, Murray has not rested for this meet at all because he is in 50 and 100 already. He will be very fast at NCAAs.
Well, you see, I used to think Conger was a semi-decent backstroker, but a few weeks ago some guy on here with a name like InsaneFather or something like was ranting that Conger had “no future” or something along those lines in the 100 back. 🙂
But seriously, I think we’d both agree that there’s more than one way to skin a cat…or construct a Texas medley relay his year.
My reasoning:… Read more »
1. Darmody went 45.2 last year leading off the medley relay, which is as fast as Conger has ever been.
2. Darmody will probably not be swimming anything else Day One.
3. Licon and Schooling will both likely swim the 200 IM twice that day.
Well argued. I just think Conger will be in too good shape to be left out of the medley relay, and Murray will be faster than him freestyle come March.
I never said Conger does not have good 100 back – I said that was an event with least chance to win NCAA. I think for Conger anything less than winning NCAA is not good enough. And he is not beating Murphy IMO. His underwaters and arm stroke rate are not good enough to win NCAA in 100 back. 100/200 fly and 100 or 200 free is where he should be looking for, for a chance to win at NCAAs.
I completely disagree with you guys on this one. The backstroke should be austin vacuum, he had a sensational freshman campaign that will surely carry over to his sophomore year. Then on breaststroke, if I were The Ed master I would put Ringgold in. He’s an all around natural sprinter that would shock some people in a 100 breast. Then for fly, since conger hasn’t done a whole lot this year in butterfly I would stick with schooling. On freestyle I don’t think theres a clear cut but I would consider tripp cooper or matt ellis for it. Maybe conger since he’s not swimming anything day 1.
*him = Eddie Reese
…all year. Texas is almost certainly going to have more than 16 guys invited to NCAA.
Conger on free in the 400 MR makes sense, especially if he’s not swimming a day one individual event. Texas should have the depth to spread out relay assignments, including swapping out some legs between prelims and finals and keep guys fresh. If I were him, I’d be going nuts right now, in a happily stressed sort of way.
Who swam breastroke on the Texas C relay? 51.5, assuming the live results are to be believed.
Almost certain it was Licon
WILL Licon! Not shaved. Slightly rested