2017 TEXAS INVITATIONAL
- Live Results
- Psych Sheets
- Meet Central
- NCAA Qualifying
- Hosted by Texas (Austin, Texas)
- 25 Yards
- Invite Format
The individual events at the 2017 Texas Hall of Fame Swimming Invitational began on Thursday morning, and USA Swimming National Team members dominated the racing.
Clark Smith, a Texas post-grad, had the top morning swim in the 500 free at 4:14.40. His undergraduate training partner Townley Haas sits 2nd in 4:15.65 and Liam Egan of Stanford is 3rd in 4:15.95. Smith and Haas finished 1-2 at last year’s NCAA Championship meet at this event. Grant Shoults of Stanford, who was 4th at NCAAs last year, also made the A final with a morning 4:16.66.
In the next event, the men’s 200 IM, Abrahm DeVine qualified 1st in the men’s 200 IM with a 1:43.08. He drove out hard, and was half-a-second better than the field on the front-half. Texas’ Sam Stewart, the best breaststroker in the field, qualified 3rd in 1;45.09, with Arizona’s Nick Thorne in between at 1:44.34. Other notables include Arizona State freshman Grant House, better known as a freestyler, qualifying 7th in 1:46.09.
Then in the men’s 50 free prelims, Joseph Schooling qualified 1st in 19.33. This was Schooling’s 3rd event at NCAAs last year and he finished 3rd. The big attention-grabber, though, was Oklahoma Baptist swimmer David Lambert qualifying 2nd in 19.34. That’s an NCAA “A” cut time, the fastest time nationally in D2 this season by half-a-second. The only swimmer faster than that in the history of Division II swimming is Lindenwood’s Serghei Golban, who split 19.18 on a relay leadoff at the 2016 NCAA Championship meet.
The women’s events started with another National Team member Leah Smith qualifying 1st in the 500 free. She swam 4:38.30, which cleared the field by almost two seconds. Joanna Evans and Evie Pfeifer from Texas were the top collegians in matching 4:40.0s.
Texas-ex Madisyn Cox led the way in the women’s 200 IM in 1;54.61. Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson, the team’s new star after Cierra Runge decided to transfer, qualified 2nd (and as top collegian) in 1:55.16.
Texas took the top 2 spots in the women’s 50 free- Rebecca Millard in 22.32 and Claire Adams in 22.42 – which are both season bests. Millard was the 10th-fastest NCAA-wide in the 50 free last season.
Are those splits right for Texas? Katz with a 45 back and Shebat with a 46?
Texas B relay beat their A relay to win the 400medley!
Texas A team was disqualified. Ringgold took off early.
Yes I know, but they would have beat the A team regardless.
Yes surprising.. Schooling splits 53.37 for fly? Strange
The 53.37 was Temple’s breast split. Schooling split a 45.50 on fly, then they were DQed for an early takeoff on the free leg.
Oops. See the psych sheet wrongly. Thanks for clarifying.
he split 45.5
They are correct. Amazing swim for the freshman. I know the Cal recruiting class is being hyped, and rightfully so, but Katz, Pomajevich, Larsen, and Neri (his stroke is amazing) are really special. Eddie knows how to pick em.
Don’t look now, but this is shaping up as the Katz, Pomajevich, and Neri show. Katz went faster than Shebat’s freshman best in the 100bk and looks like a relay option if Shebat’s 100bk is off in March. Pomajevich’s 200 free split bodes well for a big 200 fly. And Neri goes from 4:23 to 4:16 in the 500. A big personal best from Larson in the 200 leading off the relay last night as well.
Oh, and Casey Melzer dipped into the mid-52s on his medley relay breaststroke leg…not exactly Licon, but good enough to keep Texas in contention if the other 3 legs perform near their bests.
Pretty bad for a “legend” when a DII guys intimidates you so much you get 5th in your own invite after winning the prelims.
Don’t know what happened to Schooling, dropped to 5th with 19.50, but Lambert just dropped a 19.17
Maybe conserving energy for relays and other events? He splits 18.99 in 200 freestyle relay.
Sam freas alive and well at OBU
Looks like Leah Smith followed Augie after all. She’s listed as un-az
I believe Cory Chitwood coached her at UVA, was her coach at the Olympics and remains her coach but I Could be wrong.
How is Lambert still eligible? He was swimming for St. Andrews from 2013-15. Still a beastly time, OK Baptist shredded the NAIA not too long ago, not much surprise from that program.
He took a year off collegiate swimming to train for Olympic Trials with Donald Gibb, head coach at NTC Aquatics.
still puzzled by that, NTC is such a weak team
Why puzzled?
Don Gibb was an SEC 50 Freestyle champ and NCAA All-American and a fine sprinting coach.
Is Freas still head coach there? (If so, that’ll be why he’s going so quick)
Lambert did swim for St Andrews during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.
However, he was not active in collegiate swimming the last two seasons.
Consequently, he legitimately has this one last year of eligibility remaining.