Clark Smith Rocks 17:42 2000 Free; Longhorns Beat Arizona

TEXAS VS. ARIZONA

  • Results (Friday)
  • Results (Saturday)
  • Friday, January 27th-Saturday, January 28th
  • Hosted by Texas
  • 25 yards
  • Dual meet format

FINAL TEAM SCORES

  • MEN- Texas 162, Arizona 121
  • WOMEN- Texas 164, Arizona 128

The Texas Longhorns successfully defeated Arizona in a home dual meety on Friday. The men won with a score of 164-128, while the women won the meet 162-121 and won all 16 events. The Longhorns also competed against the Wildcats in exhibition on Saturday.

Senior Madisyn Cox delivered a winning triple in the final home dual meet of her NCAA career. Her first victories came in the middle distance freestyle races, as she won the 200 free in 1:45.93 and the 500 free in 4:44.78. She closed outher Friday schedule with a dominant win in the 200 IM, where she put up a 1:56.64 to win by nearly 10 seconds over Arizona freshman standout Hannah Cox (2:05.44).

Senior distance ace Clark Smith came up with a 200 free win in his final home dual meet. His 1:37.09 waas good for a 1st place finish ahead of teammate Jeff Newkirk (1:38.10). Fellow Longhorn senior Will Licon won the 100 breast, posting a 53.31 to finish 3 seconds ahead of Arizona’s Blair Bish (56.32). Texas’ Jack Conger, another member of the senior class, rolled to a 19.91 to win the 50 free.

Saturday’s meet featured an atypical event schedule, with swimmers competing in races such as the 300 free. Clark Smith had the best performance of the day, powering the a 17:42.61 in the 2000 free. That’s the fastest anyone has ever swum in a 2000 free, beating his own previous best 17:44.39 from 2015. While the 2000 free isn’t an event we usually see, his splits help put that swim into perspective.

Smith’s 8:51.60 split at the 1000 yard mark and his 14:37.95 split at the 1650 yard mark rank among the top 5 times in the nation this season. That split at the 1650 is also just 6 seconds shy of his personal best 14:31.29, which he swam in the mile at 2016 Big 12s. That’s a good indicator that Smith is ready for some NCAA redemption after a disappointing showing at the 2016 meet.

PRESS RELEASE – TEXAS MEN

AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas (5-3) won 13 of 16 events and finished off a 162-121 victory over No. 17 Arizona Friday evening at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

Texas opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay where sophomore John Shebat joined senior Will Licon and Olympic gold medalists Joseph Schooling and Jack Conger to finish in 1 minute, 27.17 seconds.

Olympic gold medalist Townley Haas delivered the Longhorns their second consecutive victory with a mark of 9:21.22 in the 1,000 freestyle, and his Olympics teammate, Clark Smith claimed the 200 freestyle at 1:37.09.  Haas and Smith helped the U.S. to gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the Rio Olympics.

Licon returned for the 100 breaststroke and made it look easy on his way to victory in 53.31.  The El Paso native broke Brendan Hansen’s school record at 100 yards while setting NCAA and American records in the 200-yard event at the 2016 NCAA Championships.

Conger added another win for the Horns in the 50 freestyle at 19.91 seconds and Schooling swept the sprint freestyle events for Texas by winning at 100 yards in 43.49.  Junior Brett Ringgold took second at 44.23.  Junior Jonathan Roberts completed a rare swim in the 200 breaststroke but won the event anyway in 2:01.60.

Freshman Grayson Campbell claimed the three-meter diving event with 436.88 points while senior Mark Anderson took second with 342.38 points.  Anderson won the one-meter event with 393.90 points.

Schooling returned to post his second win of the day in the 100 butterfly at 46.64 before Shebat claimed the 200 IM at 1:48.36.  Texas finished off the meet with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay where senior P.J. Dunne joined Roberts, Licon and Schooling to finish in 2:57.77.

Texas hosts Arizona in an exhibition meet Saturday at 10 a.m. with live coverage on Longhorn Network.  UT will recognize its 10-man senior class Saturday at approximately 9:35 a.m.

PRESS RELEASE – TEXAS WOMEN

AUSTIN, Texas – No. 1 Texas (10-1) won all 16 events en route to a 164-128 win over No. 18 Arizona Friday evening at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

Texas opened the meet with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay, where seniors Tasija Karosas and Madisyn Cox joined sophomore Remedy Rule and junior Rebecca Millard to finish in 1 minute, 38.79 seconds.

Sophomore Joanna Evans, a Rio Olympian for The Bahamas, won the 1,000 freestyle by two seconds in 9:54.07.  Cox followed up her split on the 200 medley relay with a winning mark of     1:45.93 in the 200 freestyle. Karosas kept the Horns unbeaten through four events with her 53.62 in the 100 backstroke.  The Vermont native lowered her school mark in the 100 backstroke twice last month at the Texas Invitational.

Senior Jordan Surhoff, an honorable mention All-America a year ago in the 100 breaststroke, won the same event Friday afternoon in 1:00.76.  Freshman Lauren Case added a win in the 200 butterfly at 1:58.16 while senior Maggie D’Innocenzo took second at 2:02.55.

Millard returned to claim the 50 freestyle at 22.61, and after a 15-minute break, she completed a sweep of the freestyle events by winning the 100 at 48.78.  Karosas finished off a sweep of the backstroke events and won the 200 backstroke at 1:56.23.  Karosas is the UT and Big 12 record holder in both the 100 and 200 backstroke events.

Sophomore Meghan O’Brien claimed the one-meter diving event with 316.80 points while her classmate Sofia Rauzi notched a third-place total of 269.40 points.  O’Brien completed the diving sweep for Texas with her 360.90 points on three-meter.

Sophomore Olivia Anderson delivered a Longhorns sweep of the breaststroke events, as he claimed the 200 breaststroke in 2:15.95.  Cox led a one-two Texas finish atop the 500 freestyle with her win at 4:44.78 while Evans took second at 4:49.56.  With the team win in hand, Texas elected to complete the remaining swimming events as exhibitions, though the Longhorns won all of those events.  Case edged out Arizona’s Annie Ochitwa to win the 100 butterfly at 54.37.

Cox finished off her third win of the day in the 200 IM at 1:56.64, and the Horns wrapped up their sweep of Arizona with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay at 3:19.90.

Texas will honor its eight-member senior class Saturday at approximately 9:35 a.m. CT, and UT will take on Arizona in an exhibition meet at 10 a.m.  The meet will air live on Longhorn Network.

PRESS RELEASE – ARIZONA

AUSTIN, Texas – Arizona swimming and diving fell to Texas on Friday at Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center. The women were outscored, 128-164 while the men dropped the meet, 121-162.

The men tallied three victories in the meet coming from three different swimmers.

Sophomore Justin Wright continued his success in the 200 fly, winning the first event of the day for the Cats. He finished with a time of 1:47.11, three-tenths of a second ahead of Texas.

Also adding a win for Arizona was freshman Brendan Meyer, finishing first in the 500 free with 4:33.06. The freshman also placed third in the 200 fly earlier in the meet (1:48.61).

Another Wildcat freshman, Thomas Anderson, contributed a victory for the men. Anderson won the 200 back, touching in 1:47.84. The freshman also helped the Cats to a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay along with sophomore Blair Bish, junior Chad Idensohn and junior J.P. Beach (1:28.36).

For the women, sophomore Katrina Konopka topped the swimmers with two second-place finishes in the meet. Konopka took second in the 50 free (22.76) and 100 free (49.92). The sophomore was also a part of both the 200 medley relay (1:39.31) and 400 free relay (3:21.05) A teams that placed second.

Senior Sally Hackett led the divers with two runner-up finishes. Hackett placed second in the 1-meter with 270.08 and 3-meter with 323.48, just under her season-best scores.

Freshman Hannah Cox was the only swimmer to have three top-three finishes in the meet. Cox took second in the 200 free with 1:48.63 early on. She later placed third in the 500 free (4:51.44) and 200 IM (2:05.44).

Overall, the Cats had a swimmer in the top three in 16 events for the women and 13 for the men. The women had multiple swimmers in 3 of those events and the men had at least two swimmers in six of them.

Up Next: Arizona swimming and diving hosts Arizona State for senior day on Sat. Feb. 4 with the celebrations starting at 10:30 a.m. at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The meet will be televised on Pac-12 Networks from 11:30 a.m. on.

Follow Arizona Swimming and Diving: For further coverage of Arizona swimming and diving, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and follow the team’s Twitter (@ArizonaSwimming) and Instagram (@ArizonaSwimDive) accounts.

AB

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Tea rex
7 years ago

Overlooked in the comments: conger 1:12.2 in 150 fly. 21.5, 25.1 (46.6!), 25.6. For perspective, if he can do that on taper with another 25.6 at the end (I know, easier said than done) that is 1:37.8.

Shebat had a similar time in backstroke.

DINO
Reply to  Tea rex
7 years ago

Conger 100 split at the 150(46.63), Schooling’s 100 individual time(46.64).
His mid season best is faster than previous year, his 300 fly was 2 second faster than previous year.
I’m pretty sure he will be faster than his best time at March(a sub 1:38 then), but that’s not the question isn’t it?
The question is, can he get his hands on the wall first?

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Same remark as for Jack Conger, Michael Andrew or NC State, it’s interesting to see so many comments every time an article is about Clark Smith.

DINO
7 years ago

Conger making 50 free his third event this year?

Joe
Reply to  DINO
7 years ago

He should. Probably don’t need him on the 200 medley and they seem to not want to make him have to double the 100 fly and 100 back. Not sure that he could A final but if he does I think he would have A finaled in the 500 free, 50 free, 100 fly, 100 back, 200 back, and 200 fly in his four years in NCAAs. Not bad.

NYC Unicorn
Reply to  Joe
7 years ago

50 not his 3rd event

DINO
Reply to  Joe
7 years ago

Beside 3 individual events, I think his relays will be 800 free relay, 400 free relay, 200 free relay(with Ringgold Schooling and Jackson), 400 MR.
Ringgold will do the 200 MR then.
If he could get into the 50 free B final(even better the A final), he could earn some point.
Not like last year he scratched at the last minute, and that will be no point at all.

NYC Unicorn
7 years ago
Kitajimafan
7 years ago

Obviously from my username, I’m all for cheating and extra dolphin kicks but when Clark uses fins in season it’s so obvious! Yeah, why else would he go slow at NCAAs??? IPSec winning the mile this year making a yuuuuge STATEment AAAAAAAooooooooo!!!

swimson
7 years ago

Wow, great 2000 by Smith. He was 1.78 seconds faster this year than last year (17:44 last year). That means he was .44 faster per 500. At NCAAs last year he went 4:17.17 in the 500. So, Im guessing he will go around 4:16.73, give or take a few hundredths. Maybe he will be able to slip into finals this year if he sleeps more than two hours.

WolfPack
Reply to  swimson
7 years ago

Sounds about right

Kurt Rambis
Reply to  swimson
7 years ago

Clark Smith doesn’t sleep. He waits.

bobthebuilderrocks
7 years ago

I feel so bad for all of those NC State fans that are going to be sobbing in front of their TV’s this March…. I’m sorry guys…

Sir Swimsalot
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
7 years ago

It will be sweet…

marklewis
7 years ago

It’s been a long time since the USA had the world’s top men’s 400 m freestyler.

Clark is as good a candidate we have to make it to the Gold Medal level.

Brian Goodell way back in 1978 was the last American to hold the WR in the 400 free.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  marklewis
7 years ago

+ Haas in the 200 free ( 1.44ich in the relay in Rio )

About Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh is a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Arizona (2013-2015) and the University of Florida (2011-2013). While her college swimming career left a bit to be desired, her Snapchat chin selfies and hot takes on Twitter do not disappoint. She's also a high school graduate of The …

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