The first finals session of the 2014 Texas Swimming & Diving Hall of Fame Invite began this evening at 6 pm at the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin. Most notably, tonight’s swimmers achieved a total of 11 NCAA A cut times. Here’s your recap of tonight’s exciting session:
200 Freestyle Relay
Finals kicked off with the exciting 200 Freestyle Relay events. In the women’s event, it was a race to the finish between Texas and Wisconsin. In the end, Texas’s Gretchen Jaques, Kelsey Leneave, Rebecca Millard, and Mimi Schneider finished first in 1:29.30 ahead of Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin, Chase Kinney, Aja Van Hout, and Annie Tamblyn in 1:29.44. Both of these top teams achieved NCAA A cut standards. USC’s A relay claimed third place in a time of 1:30.12, an NCAA B cut. Texas also claimed first in the men’s event. Matt Ellis, John Murray, Joseph Schooling, and Brett Ringgold clocked an NCAA A cut time of 1:16.72, although the split of 18.18 listed for Ringgold is incorrect. Arizona’s A relay of Bradley Tandy, Brian Stevens, Renny Richmond, and JP Beach also clocked an NCAA A cut, finishing a second behind Texas in 1:17.88. Texas’s B relay finished third in 1:18.66.
500 Freestyle
Tjasa Oder of Arizona won the women’s 500 Freestyle by over a second in a time of 4:40.71, an NCAA B cut. Haley Anderson of the Trojan Swim Club (4:42.16) and Kaitlin Pawlowicz of Texas (4:42.62) finished first and second, respectively. Anderson and Pawlowicz also achieved the NCAA B standard of 4:47.79. In the men’s event, Clark Smith of Texas claimed first in 4:13.32. Smith, who did not make last year’s NCAAs, is now leading the country with this time. Finishing second was Nikita Lobintsev of the Trojan Swim Club in a time of 4:15.94. Clay Youngquist of Texas claimed fourth place in 4:16.61. Tonight’s top 13 finishers achieved the NCAA B standard.
100 Butterfly
Andrea Ward (unattached UC – Santa Barbara) won the women’s 100 Butterfly in a time of 51.93, slightly slower than her NCAA A cut time from the morning session. Kendyl Stewart of USC finished second in 51.99, followed by Ivy Martin of Wisconsin in 52.75. The top 14 finishers posted NCAA B cut times. In the men’s event, Jack Conger of Texas lead the pack, lowering his time to 45.76. Conger was once again under the NCAA A cut standard tonight. Alex Fernandes of Utah finished second (46.31), followed by Thiago Pereira of the Trojan Swim Club (46.49), and Tripp Cooper of Texas (46.57). Nineteen men achieved NCAA B standards in the 100 Butterfly event tonight.
200 IM
Stina Gardell of the Trojan Swim Club won the women’s 200 IM by well over a second. Her time of 1:55.79 was three seconds faster than her prelims time, and she achieved the NCAA B standard. The other NCAA B cut times of the night belonged to Andrea Kropp of USC (1:56.99), Skylar Smith of Texas (1:59.96), and Aja Van Hout of Wisconsin (2:00.57). In the men’s event, the Trojan Swim Club’s Thiago Pereria swam to an NCAA A cut time of 1:42.06 and a first place finish. Will Licon of Texas touched the wall in second (1:43.51), and Michael Meyer of Arizona placed third (1:45.90). The top 23 swimmers in the men’s event achieved the NCAA B standard.
50 Freestyle
Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin placed first once again in the women’s 50, touching the wall in a time of 21.94. She was a few hundredths slower than her NCAA A cut time from the morning session. Margo Geer (unattached Arizona) finished second in 21.96, edging some time off her prelims swim. Taylor Schick of Arizona claimed third in 22.37. Seven swimmers from the A final, four from the B final, and one from the C final achieved the NCAA B standard. In the men’s event, Bradley Tandy of Arizona posted an impressive swim and NCAA A cut time, finishing in 19.04. Texas swimmers John Murray (19.37), Matt Ellis (19.41), and Brett Ringgold (19.56) finishing second through fourth, respectively.
400 Medley Relay
In the women’s event, the top two finishing teams achieved the NCAA A standard. The USC women’s A relay (Hannah Weiss, Andrea Kropp, Kendyl Stewart, and Katarzyna Wilk) touched first in a time of 3:33.25. In second was Texas’s A relay of Tasija Karosas, Gretchen Jaques, Kelsey Leneave, and Rebecca Millard in 3:33.57. Texas’s B relay claimed third in 3:36.15. In the men’s event, Texas’s C relay of Jack Conger, Austin Temple, Matt Ellis, and Brett Ringgold finished with the top time, 3:08.32. Arizona’s A relay (Michael Meyer, Kevin Cordes, Brian Stevens, and Bradley Tandy) posted the second best time, 3:09.61. USC’s A relay claimed third place in a time of 3:10.21.
Tomorrow’s events include the following:
400 IM
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
200 Medley Relay
800 Freestyle Relay
Live results can be found at http://sidearmstats.com/texas/swim/index.htm. The meet will resume tomorrow at 10 am. Check back tomorrow afternoon for a prelims recap.
Clark swam 500 last year a lot too. His stroke is long and very efficient. With strength he built up since joining horns, we now see results.
He was a 4:18 out of high school, I think most people were expecting that’d be his first-day championship meet event, so no surprise he’s been swimming it a lot.
Why Schooling didn’t swim the 100 fly final and the 4X100 medley relay?
Schooling made NCAA A time in prelims. That was the goal, not winning the finals. About 400MR, that is just Eddie messing around.
Conger made NCAA A cut in the prelims too but he didn’t scratch the final. I had hoped to see a 45 low or even a 44 from Schooling, considering his national high school record of 45.52 last year. Perhaps he wanted to focus on the 200IM in the finals where he won the B final with a 1:44. I see Joseph is entered for the 100 back but not the 200 free today..
This is correct. However I thought Eddie was just messing around all last year by never putting Licon in the 4 Medley A relay despite Licon beating all their breastrokers all year last year. Even at NCAAS he still went with Imri. Not only was Licon faster all year but the way he tapered and swam at NCAAs he would have been a full second faster than Imri at that meet. He once again has started off as the fastest split in that event but he does not swim it individually because they need him for both I.M.s and the 200 breast. Last night he outsplit all of them again even after swimming the 200IM while the breaststrokers only swam… Read more »
Looks like he did swim it individually at least this morning – 52.9
Yes he did. But for NCAAs you only get 3 events and he was the only I.M.er for Texas last year so they needed him in both and his best event is arguably the 200 breast. That was my point, he swam the 100 in dual meets last year when he could swim more than 3 events and beat the other breaststrokers every time and he still was not used on the relay at NCAAS. Don’t be surprised if he scratches the 4IM tonight to lower that 52.9 and give Eddie no choice. The other 2 guys were 54 and 55 this morning. Not even close.
Most impressive swims come in my opinion from Clark Smith.
Twice 4.13 in the 500 free is great.
I thought he was more a butterflyer, especially a 200 fly specialist. These are my memories of him at US Juniors a few years ago.
Perhaps this is foreshadowing of a sick 200 fly in a couple days??
Texas was just playing with their relay lineups and their A and C relays were the top 2 times in the country. A relay false started and so did Zona’s. Does anybody know if that was Cordez again that jumped???? If so, wow.
Ahhh never mind just saw the results. Zona’s B relay was the one that jumped early. I just heard them announce that one of their relays were disqualified as I was exiting the swim center. I was about to feel really bad if it was Cordez once again. Glad it wasn’t, his confidence can only take so many of those in big meets.
Wow. Texas’s men’s medley relay could probably be more than 2 seconds faster with Schooling on the fly leg and Licon on breast! I don’t see Cal being able to match this one.
And the funny thing about it is, the relay that won was their second-fastest relay – the ‘A’ relay is all the way down with a DQ with Darmody (46.7), Ganiel (52.7), Cooper (45.9), Murray (42.3). So they would have had two relays with A cuts, without swimming their best flyer and with potentially their best breaststroker on another relay.
Really impressive swims from the Texas men. And so much depth. Their relays are going to be really really fast in march. Having two of the most versatile swimmers in Conger and Schooling doesn’t hurt either.