Christopher O’Connor, who entered the NCAA transfer portal last month after one year at the University of Alabama, announced Sunday that he will be transferring to the University of the Texas.
I am excited to announce that I will continue my athletic and academic career at the University of Texas! I want to thank everyone who has helped me through my journey and, I can’t wait to see what’s in store! Hook’em 🤘🏻
O’Connor is primarily a backstroker, and swam in the B-finals of both the 100 and 200 backstrokes at the 2021 SEC Men’s Championships in February.
Time Progressions:
| PB AT TIME OF COMMITMENT | PB PRIOR TO ALABAMA | PB AT ALABAMA | |
| 100 yard back | 49.06 | 47.78 | 47.1o |
| 200 yard back | 1:53.85 | 1:49.95 | 1:42.23 |
| 100 meter back | 55.39 | 55.39 | 54.85 |
| 200 meter back | 2:03.48 | 2:03.48 | 2:00.96 |
Despite strong improvements by swimmers like O’Connor and fellow freshman Matt King, the Crimson Tide has been beset by swimmers entering the transfer portal since the end of the college season. On the men’s side, that list includes O’Connor, King, Colton Stogner, Andrew Shea, Liam Bell, Alec Dixon, and Nico Hernandez-Tome. Of that group, all but O’Connor and Shea are NCAA Championship qualifiers. Bell has announced he’s transferring to California, while King is heading to Virginia.
O’Connor joins a Longhorn backstroke group that will be potentially going through some transition next season, assuming that seniors Austin Katz, Alvin Jiang and Chris Staka (who, liked O’Connor, transferred from Alabama) don’t come back for a 5th year. The NCAA granted all athletes who competed in the 2020-2021 season an additional year of eligibility, but so far we haven’t seen any indication that any of those three will take advantage of it.
The Longhorns’ backstroke group will still include Carson Foster, who’s primarily an IMer, was an A-finalist in the 200 back last season at NCAAs, and Peter Larson also returns after finishing 17th in the same event. Additionally, the Longhorns incoming freshman class is headlined by sprint backstroker Anthony Grimm.
O’Connor’s 200 back time would’ve actually finished 2nd behind Katz at the 2021 Big 12 Championships, and he was only about half a second away from earning a NCAA invite in the invite. Although, merely qualifying for NCAAs as a Longhorn isn’t enough to guarantee you’ll swim at NCAAs, as Texas left 10 qualifiers at home last season due to roster limits. Still, it certainly would not be a surprise to see O’Connor make a NCAA roster at some point during his Texas career, given his current trajectory.
Ring chasing smh 🤦♀️
Why is this still on the front page
It isn’t. Are you sure you’re on the home page and not the recruiting page?
Sadly another talent who will swim at a three-team “conference” meet and not make the NCAA team.
“Sadly” another talent that will love swimming with great and fast guys, improve very quickly, be taken care of by coaches, athletic staff and academic advisors, and gain life long friendships. Being part of Texas swim team and swimming for Eddie and Wyatt is bigger than swimming at NCAAs. It does not hurt Austin is not a bad place to spend student years.
Where have you been this week? Texas is now in the SEC. And no, it won’t be 2025, all inside sources say next season or 2022 at the latest.
It’s 2025
Eddie is gunna snap his fingers and hes going to drop 4 seconds in December.
Can Eddie please coach the women
Power 5 Conference college ADs don’t want to deal with “Non-Revenue Sport problems”. They are all about football, basketball, any other revenue sport and then, if there is any bandwidth left, they deal with the other sports. Assistant ADs and Associate ADs want to either become ADs at a big institution or they want to work with the high profile sports like football and basketball. So, dealing with non-revenue sport problems is something they just want to deal with quickly and move on to more important things that will help their careers. No matter how successful Alabama’s swimming program is/could be, it still is more of a pain in the butt for the AD than anything and the fewer problems… Read more »
Bama has a very good swim program!! Why is everyone being so mean
Swim season starts in 3 weeks
I think Bama might be more interested in the college club season. That starts Spring semester.
Alabama does have one of the best facilities in the country. Outdoor pool. The returning swimmers and recruits will have a fabulous season. Margo has trained a few months now, and will improve. She is diligent and learns quickly. Look at Ozzie’s success training Rhyan White. There are hiccups with any transition, and Bama swimmers have had more than their fair share of adversity over the past few years. They need to dedicate themselves to the sport they love, trust and support the coaches and communicate with AD. Roll Tide!!
Auburn has a bigger and better outdoor pool, along with the indoor 50m and that dungeon pool. In addition, AU has Vlad who will work with the guys.
Kids are leaving b/c of the hire, plain and simple. The pool maintenance folks are just as qualified to coach those kids, and might do a better job.