2015 Texas Swimming & Diving Hall of Fame Invite
The final prelims session of the 2015 Texas Invite includes the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 fly, and 1650 freestyle. The fastest heat from each of the men’s and women’s 1650 will be swum with finals.
200 Backstroke
Tasija Karosas led a 1-2 finish for Texas in the women’s 200 back prelims, coming in at 1:53.63 ahead of teammate Quinn Carrozza who was 2nd in 1:54.11. Karosas’ time of 1:53.63 ranks her 4th in the NCAA. Bonnie Brandon of Arizona was 3rd, Madison White of UCLA was 4th and Cameron McHugh of Arizona was 5th. Rounding out the top-8 is Hannah Leach (USC), Danielle Lee (Harvard) and Jessica Unicomb (Wisconsin), who was 8th in 1:57.01.
Ryan Harty of Texas led the men’s 200 back prelims in a time of 1:42.51, improving his season best by one one-hundredth of a second. Chatham Dobbs and Thane Maudslien of Arizona finished 2nd and 3rd, and 100 back winner Jake Taylor of BYU was 4th in 1:43.54, tying with Brock Bonetti of Texas A&M. Rounding out the top-8 is Ian Lemaistre (Texas), Jack Manchester (Harvard), and Brett Pinfold (Wisconsin).
100 Freestyle
Top seeded Anika Apostolan of USC led the way in the women’s 100 freestyle finishing in 48.38, just ahead of Wisconsin’s Chase Kinney who was 2nd in 48.42. The top-7 women all broke 49 seconds, with Annie Ochitwa (3rd, 48.62), Caroline McTaggart, Kirsten Vose, Rebecca Millard, and Katrina Konopka (7th, 48.96) all getting under. 8th place went to Arizona’s Paige Kremer in 49.31, and last nights 200 free winner Chelsea Chenault just missed out on making the top-8 in 9th at 49.35.
John Murray led a 1-2-3 finish for the Texas men in the 100 free prelims, finishing in 42.42 ahead of Brett Ringgold (42.61) and Matt Ellis (43.01). Cannon Clifton of Wisconsin was 4th, Townley Haas made it 4 Texas men in the top-5 in 5th, and Connor Stirling and Payton Sorenson of BYU were 6th and 7th. Rounding out the top-8 was Renny Richmond of Arizona in 44.09.
200 Breaststroke
Madisyn Cox, Kirsten Vose and Emma Schoettmer all threw down quick sub-2:10 morning swims in the 200 breast, with Cox coming in at 2:09.60, Vose 2:09.68 and Schoettmer 2:09.75. Anna Meinholz of Wisconsin was 4th, Kelsey Kafka of USC was 5th and Sara Borendame of Arizona was 6th. The top-8 is rounded out by Riley Scott of USC and Jordan Surhoff of Texas in 8th at 2:13.22.
Defending NCAA champion Will Licon paced the men’s 200 breast prelims going 1:53.81 for the top seed. That is the 4th fastest time in the NCAA this season. He was followed closely by Andrew Wilson in 1:53.90. Wilson was the winner of the 100 breast last night. Last nights 100 breast runner-up Gage Crosby is 3rd in 1:55.42, and Morten Klarskov of USC is 4th in 1:57.92. The other top-8 finishers were Matt Salerno, Jonah Hu, Fernando Morillas, and Shane McNamara, who was 8th in 1:58.75.
200 Butterfly
Katie Grover of UCLA topped the women’s 200 fly prelims in 1:56.29, followed closely by Texas’ Remedy Rule (1:56.64), and Madison Wright (1:57.28) and Chelsea Chenault (1:57.74) of USC. Also finishing in the top-8 was Dana Grindall, Sonia Wang, Arlyn Upshaw, and Maggie D’Innocenzo.
After winning the 100 fly last night, Jack Conger put up the top time in the men’s 200 fly prelims in 1:42.44. Justin Wright of Arizona was 2nd in 1:42.79, and Conger’s teammate Joseph Schooling was 3rd in 1:43.04. Schooling posted the top time in the 100 fly prelims, only to scratch the final opening the door for Conger to take the win. Swimming a more conservative prelim race today, we should expect Schooling to swim this final. John Martens, Will Glass and Jonathan Roberts made it 5 men from Texas in the top-8, finishing 4th, 7th and 8th respectively. Mathias Oh and Rasmus Skjaerpe of Arizona finished 5th and 6th. Texas freshmen Mason Tenney and Max Holter settled their tie for 16th with a best 2 out of 3 battle in rock paper scissors, won by Tenney 2-1.
1650 Freestyle
Arizona’s Emma McCarthy has posted the top time thus far in the women’s 1650 in 16:26.45, with the fastest heat to swim with finals.
The same goes for the men, as Nick Hogsed of Arizona went 15:05.61 this morning, the top time with the fastest seeded heat still to swim.
Tonight’s finals session will include the 400 free relay after all of the individual events.
Rumor has it that Clark Smith will be going for the American record in the 1000 during the 1650. I think his chances are excellent.
The real 200 showdown will take place in breaststroke between the defending NCAA champion and America’s breaststroke savior Andrew Wilson.