It was senior Day at the Gabrielsen Natatorium on Saturday as the Georgia Bulldogs hosted the Texas Longhorns, and the crowd of nearly 500 fans certainly weren’t let down by the action in the pool as Georgia closed-out their dual-meet schedule.
The Bulldog women topped the Longhorns 143-100, while the Texas men held off Georgia to win 132-109. For the Georgia women, that marks their 82nd-straight home victory, despite the team battling a touch of the flu that has been ripping around the North American continent.
The Longhorn men used big diving performances to hold off some great late swims from the Bulldogs for this victory. The meet culminated in the final 400 free relay that saw Georgia freshman Matias Koski squared up against Texas senior Dax Hill on the anchor leg. Hill hit the water with about a four-tenths of a second lead, and right when the Longhorns needed it most, he put up his best swim of the last two meets with a 44.1 anchor. That held off an equally-impressive swim by Koski (43.91) to give Texas a win in the meet and the relay in 2:58.80; Georgia was 2nd in 2:58.93.
Georgia made a big push at the end of the meet, including finishing 1-4 in the 200 breaststroke against a challenged Longhorn breaststroke group. That includes freshman Chase Kalisz, in his second career college meet, showing his value again with a big 1:59.29 victory. Georgia, however, couldn’t recover from being manhandled in diving, where Texas went 1-3 on both springboards and Georgia had only the 4th-place scorer.
For Texas, the highlight of the meet was Michael McBroom having another great meet to take out the powerful Georgia distance group with a 4:25.18 in the 500 free and a 9:03.10 in the 1000 free. In both cases, Andrew Gemmell was 2nd in 4:26.5 and 9:07.60, respectively.
Gemmell, despite being the runner-up in both races, will walk away from those swims feeling very good about where his season is going. He’s a swimmer who always counts on a really big taper, and he’s a few seconds ahead of pace in both races so far this season.
Eddie Reese, coach of the Texas men’s team, was much happier with this result than he was with those against Auburn earlier this week.
“We were much better in all phases of the game, had a little more speed than at Auburn,” Reese said by comparison. “We were a lot better at racing,” and that clearly showed in the results.
On the women’s side, this was Texas head coach Carol Capitani’s big homecoming; before taking over the Texas team this year, she was an associate head coach under Jack Bauerle for a decade.
Georgia didn’t cut her any breaks in her return home, though, as they continue to persevere through some hardship this season for another win. They kicked things off with a win in the 400 medley relay in 3:38.13, including very good splits of 53.17 from Lauren Harrington on the fly leg and a 48.9 anchor from Olympic Champion Allison Schmitt. Harrington is really coming into her own as a butterflier, and thus allowing Megan Romano to push to the backstroke leg and Schmitt to the freestyle leg of this relay. All-of-a-sudden, the Bulldogs’ medley is shaping up as one of the best in the country, inching them back into the National Championship picture against Cal.
Schmitt would take the win in the 200 free, ahead of teammate Shannon Vreeland, 1:47.16. Though Alex Hooper was only in 3rd place, and not scoring big points, a good 1:48.17 will leave her pleased with the swim. Schmitt took only 3rd in the 500 free (4:50.70) behind Vreeland (4:48.57) and sophomore Amber McDermott (4:49.33). Between this swim and McDermott’s win in the 1000 in 9:47, she’s really getting back into shape after missing some time with an injury earlier this year.
Texas’ Ellen Lobb ended up on the right end of the 50 free this time; after falling to Auburn’s Hannah Riordan by .01 on Thursday, she beat National Teamer Megan Romano by the same margin on Saturday in Athens. What’s even better is that the times were exactly the same as they were on Thursday – 22.91 to 22.92 – an important reminder to the importance of every hundredth on every swim.
We still haven’t seen a championship meet from the Texas women, but despite two-straight losses (to top ten teams), Capitani’s first year with Texas seems to be going really well.
Where was Grodzski?
44.1 and 43.9 anchor legs really aren’t that impressive for this time of year. I’m still sticking with my prediction of Texas 4th at NCAA’s behind Cal, Stanford, and Michigan.
Considering Auburn beat TX.. how good would Auburn go?
does anyone know why imri ganiel isn’t swimming now? is he not eligible?
scott – our sources tell us that correct, he couldn’t get eligible this semester. Same with A&M’s Israeli. Both will be swimming at sectionals as their taper meet (though, I couldn’t get either school’s PR departments to answer my emails).
When was the last time Eddie Reese had an international swimmer on his Texas teams? I didn’t think he recruited internationally?
As far as I can tell, Branden Whitehurst, who was from the Virgin Islands (though he went to Bolles).
Sigh the days of xenophobic Texas swim teams and fans chanting “U-S-A…U-S-A” while losing relays against Auburn and then Cal. Does any team perennially do less with more than Texas? Don’t answer that, you’ll get called a furrener who is here to take jerbs and guns away from red-blooded ‘Mericans(read: longhorns)
You know, besides the fact that they are one of the best teams in terms of developing talent in the nation…
Calling Austin and UT xenophobic shows how little you know what you are talking about. Eddie does it right way: find tallents and athletes and develop them. Eddie likes to visit you parents, talk to them about fishing and hunting and least abotu swimming. he cannot do that internationally. How many times have we have seen a UT freshman or sophmore or junior became NCAA champions (recently: Surhoff, McBride, Friedland, Hill). Eddie is among best in developing tallents.
Just ignore the blatant xenophobia – like die-hard Lance Armstrong fans who choose to ignore the PED use and malicious and mendacious behavior because he won. Hmmm come to think o it Lance is from Austin. I know Austin well and like many things about it including many friends who call it home. Doesn’t for one second change the fact that of course ents are tall, they are like 1000-year-old trees. Duh
Thanks Braden!
If you know Austin you should also then know that most Austinites are non-white, which your “red-blooded ‘Mericans” comment implies. I always thgouth Armstrong cheated but he is no worse than Van Der Burgh, who I am sure you supported. By the way, I am not an American.
Have I called Austin xenophobic? I can tell English is not your first language. No biggie. But make sure you understand before you attack. I called specific, non-debatable actions, that occurred over a several year period, perpetrated by the UT swim team and it’s fans, xenophobic. Their actions were deplorable an unforgivable, not to mention frightening, when you or your closest friends are foreign, and are being publicly chanted down by a virtually uneducated(UT) group of people who self-admittedly like to hunt and shoot things that they consider below them. Since we can both agree the terrible outlook on life isn’t a product of Austin, what or who then do you propose taught the swimmers and fans this behavior, and… Read more »
I’m looking forward to the 400 IM at NCAAs. Particularly the Rousseau/ Prenot/ Kalisz match up. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an NCAA record.
agree…4im should be fast and young…
Don’t forget Weiss and Whitaker at least.
Pretty good swim meet for UGA. They are always training hard and have a good taper ahead.
Lucky for Texas, Georgia didn’t have any divers or else they would have lost
see my comments about Texas in the TX vs AU article…still true. I worry about Texas this year…they could be anywhere from 3rd to probably 6th or so.
6th? Now that is a bit of an exaggeration. There’s no doubt that they will not have the diving power they have had in the past and their breaststroke group has been decimated, but 6th? C’mon.
They have some very good depth in the mid-distance and distance freestyles, in addition to the studs to win some of those races. Their backstroke group, while not possessing anyone who could challenge for a win, has enough depth to put up some good points. Their fly group is a little shaky, but Tripp is looking good and they have an emergent freshman in the 200. They lack a true superstar in the sprints with the graduation of Jimmy, but have some depth… Read more »
Cal, Stanford, Michigan, USC, AZ, UF all have the talent to beat Texas this year,so I will change that to anywhere from 3rd to 7th! I am saying they could get 3rd but wouldn’t be surprised if they were much lower.
Well going by that method I suppose you could probably make a case for Cal getting anywhere from 1st-3rd, Stanford anywhere from 2nd-6th, Michigan 2nd-6th, UF 4th-10th, and so on. If every single on of those teams has perfect prelim swims, has no empty events or finals, and Texas completely bombs NCAA’s then yeah, sure, Texas will probably be 7th.
that has happened before…just ask Texas for the whole decade of the 2000’s when they were favored to win almost every year and never did. i don’t think my predictions are too far off ..i think they could be 3rd if everyone is on and 7th if they aren’t on at all.
When was the last time that 6 of the top-10 finishing teams have had a literally perfect meet at the same NCAAs, a la Cal last year, while simultaneously having a perennial top-3 team utterly underperform in every facet of the meet to drop to a lowly 7th?
Being favored to win and then come in 2nd or 3rd is entirely different then becoming a third or fourth tier team. And, if memory serves me correct, last time I was standing on deck and checked out the championship banners there was one from 2000,2001,2002, and 2010 so I’m not sure saying that they were favored to win “every year and never did” is a wholly accurate statement.
Guess… Read more »
Who are their b-final sprinters? At least in the 50? Dax and Youngquist could challenge in the 100, but do they have a pure sprinter?
If Cooper’s their flyer, they’ll be in trouble. The Texas website shows a best of 47.08. If he can pull off a 46 mid or low flat start, that’ll be all right, but he’s competing with guys like Shields and Giles Smith. We’re talking 2-2.5 second difference for relays. For the individual event, Cal has to leave guys home that go 46-mid 100 flies (unfortunately).
The TX breaststroke group seems particularly weak; they’ve had Surhoff swim the breast leg in the last few duel meets, I think.
Moore, Wenzler, and Dax all have a shot at being B-final in the 50. Dax and Clay aren’t going to be in the top 5 at NCAA’s but could pick up some points in the lower rungs of the A-final or be top-B final contenders.
I never said Tripp is going to be a contender in the 100. Shields will clearly run away with that one, and their are too many others that will be in the 45 mid-high range that he wont be a top 4 or 5 100 flyer. But if he can get into 46 low territory which, judging by his season he’s had so far and the fact that he’s a pretty big taper swimmer,… Read more »
Dax may have a shot.. but he is only the 23 on the ranking.. Wenzler is 41.. for he to have a shot he is going to need a HUGE improve.. and some guys went really bad. Texas Sprint
Even a A final on 100 free it would be hard.. Dax have a shot but not a 100% sure chance..
His best event the 200 now he have de Lucca as probably the favorite..
On 1650 Broom will face Jaeger..
Do Texas really have any event where the can be NCAA champion??
They haven’t had a meet where they have tapered or shaved yet so going off of their in-season best times is a bit of a joke. Wenzler, coming off of a few days of rest, went two best times in the 100 free at Winter Nationals at 44.4 and 43.7 which bodes very well for his Big 12 meet and should correlate to a drop in the 50, his best being a 19.8. Seeing as 19.6 made it back last year at NCAAs I’d say that puts him in the mix with even a small drop.
Hard to say that Joao is a heavy favorite. He was shaved at Nationals when he posted that 1:32 so we’ll have to see… Read more »