Two Transfers Propelled Texas’ Successful Day Two NCAAs Campaign

In a year where roster limits have put the transfer portal under a microscope, the first two individual races of the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships were both won by Texas Longhorns who swam for other teams last season.

The 500 free champion, Rex Maurer, transferred from Stanford to Texas, while 200 IM champ Hubert Kos came from Arizona State. These two swimmers’ journeys to Austin were vastly different, but both of them arrived and won titles after disappointing NCAAs by their standard last seasons.

Maurer, the No. 1 recruit in the U.S. high school class of 2023, committed to Stanford late in his recruiting cycle. It seemed like the obvious choice at the time, as his brother, Luke, went there and his mother, Lea, used to coach there. However, he struggled mightily at his first NCAA Championships, adding considerable time in almost all of his events, failing to score and finishing 31st in the 500 free.

That poor showing stuck with Maurer up until this year’s NCAAs.

“Last year I was really disappointed with my performances. I felt like I had a lot of better swims in me and I just really wasn’t able to do it,” Maurer said. “It’s taken a lot of reflection since then and realizing, ‘How can I prevent that from happening?”

In April 2024, Maurer entered the transfer portal and committed to Texas in June. As a Longhorn, he saw drastic improvement across the board, dropping over seven seconds in the 500 free. At midseasons this season, he set the American record of 4:04.45 in the event.

Despite feeling like he had a target on his back as the top seed and American holder, as well as a pressure to ‘overcome demons’ from last season, Maurer still got the job done at NCAAs in the 500 free. He won his first national title, going 4:05.35 and clearing the field by nearly a second.

“It really starts in training. That’s where I build all my confidence,” Maurer said. “Training with the guys I’m training with is absolutely ridiculous…being able to hang with them in practice really shows me that I’m doing the training it takes to go 4:04, go 4:05 and win NCAAs. Luke [Hobson has] won this 500 before and so just being able to be in that environment is really what propelled me to this result.”

Kos was a more established swimmer than Maurer when he transferred, already having two NCAAs and a world championship title under his belt. But at 2024 NCAAs, he added from his seed times in all of his individual events, falling short an individual title despite having a shot at three.

When former Arizona State head coach Bob Bowman took the Texas coaching job, Kos followed along. One of the very first things he accomplished as a Longhorn was to win Olympic gold in Paris, an accomplishment that changed the way he perceived big-meet nerves.

“Three years ago, I was very, very nervous. After Paris, it feels like there’s no reason for me to be scared anymore, be nervous about anything ever again, because I was able to [win] on the biggest stage,” Kos said. “Having that be my goal since I was a kid, I feel like everything after that is sort of a bonus and a gift. And that’s how I view these NCAAs.”

“Last year obviously didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. So this year we trained a bit harder…Im really happy that that’s turning out to be good.”

Kos swam a time of 1:37.97 in the 200 IM ‘A’ final, holding off defending champion and pre-meet favorite Destin Lasco by 0.07 seconds. With Kos’ performance, he ties Lasco as the second-fastest performer in the history of the event, behind his former ASU teammate Leon Marchand.

Despite having won an NCAA team title with Arizona State, swimming at Texas still feels different for Kos. In Austin, the pressure of 15 national titles stick with him.

“There’s an outside expectation that I feel, like we all sort of feel that the eyes of Texas are upon you the whole time. And that’s sort of what we didn’t have back at ASU,” Kos said, “There’s a real expectation that when you come here, you come to win. That’s sort of a blessing sometimes, and it sort of takes away sometimes.”

Transfers, all coming to Austin under various circumstances, are a big reason why the Longhorns have a strong shot at returning to the top of the mountain for the first time 2021. Sprint star Chris Guiliano comes from Notre Dame after the Fighting Irish’s men’s program was suspended for a year. Indiana, another top contender, is built by transfers like Owen McDonald and Zalan Sarkany from ASU, Matt King from Virginia, Brian Benzing from Towson and Casper Corbeau from Texas.

As NIL money and more lenient NCAA transfer rules have turned college sports offseasons into a pre-professional “free agency,” we are starting to see the effects of it in swimming. When all is said and done on Saturday night, whichever team crowned as NCAA champions could very well possibly be a team led by swimmers who weren’t there the year prior.