Texas Sweeps Alabama in Season Opener, Eva Okaro Splits 20.94 in the 50 Free

Alabama vs Texas

• Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• October 10, 2025
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Full Meet Results
• Team Scores
  • Women: Texas 211.5 — 88.5 Alabama
  • Men: Texas 216 — 82 Alabama
  • Combined: Texas 427.5 — 170.5 Alabama

The Texas Longhorns opened their season on Friday in a dual meet against Alabama, and both the men’s and women’s teams came out victorious with very strong performances from the new freshmen including a sub-21 split from Eva Okaro.

Women’s Meet Recap

The women’s meet opened with an upset in the 200 medley relay. The Alabama Crimson Tide women won the event in 1:34.59, touching nearly four tenths ahead of the Longhorn team’s 1:34.94.

Emily Jones led the team off in 23.67, about a tenth off the 23.59 she swam leading off this relay at SECs. Jada Scott swam breaststroke in the 2nd leg splitting 26.30 to hand off to Gaby Van Brunt’s 23.36 fly split. Cadence Vincent brought the team home in a blistering 21.26 split. Their total time was only two tenths slower than the 1:34.36 they swam at last year’s SEC’s, where they finished 4th

The Texas team was not without star power on the relay. Notably, freshman sprinter Eva Okaro had a monster freestyle split of 20.94 to bring the team home. She was joined by Emma Kern on back (24.29), Piper Enge on breast (26.58), and Campbell Stoll on fly (23.13). Okaro’s split was nearly a second faster than the 21.62 Grace Cooper swam to anchor the relay at NCAAs.

Okaro went on to win the 50 and 100 freestyle events in her dual meet debut, setting new nation leading times in both. In the 50 free, she swam 21.87 to be the only swimmer under 22 seconds in the event. Cadence Vincent was 2nd for Alabama in 22.09. She overtakes Sara Curtis’ 21.97 from the UVA vs Navy meet.

In the 100 free, she swam 47.48 to come in just over three tenths ahead of teammate Erin Gemmell’s 47.79. She is the first NCAA swimmer this season to swim under 48 seconds in the event with Indiana’s Liberty Clark holding the previous top time in 48.29.

Okaro also swam on Texas’ winning 400 freestyle relay, swimming the fastest split of the four at 47.39. Lillie Nesty led off in 48.29, and Gemmell swam 2nd in 47.83. Okaro had the 3rd spot and Louisville transfer Lucy Mehraban anchored the team in 48.46.

Texas had a few dual event winners, starting with Jillian Cox, who won the 1000 free in 9:29.01, which would have been the top time in the country yesterday, but Julie Brousseau swam 9:25.50 at Florida’s dual meet with Virginia this morning. She also won the 500 free in 4:35.74, which comes in just behind Aimee Canny’s nation leading time of 4:34.26 from the Florida vs Virginia meet.

Piper Enge won the 100 and 200 breaststroke, swimming 59.45 in the 100 and 2:09.62 in the 200. Both swims are the 2nd fastest times in the country so far this season behind Anita Bottazzo in the 100 and Emma Weber in the 200.

Other Texas Event Winners

• 200 free- 1:43.30, Erin Gemmell
• 200 fly- 1:53.89, Campbell Stoll
• 200 back- 1:54.07, Lillie Nesty
• 200 IM- 1:56.94, Angie Coe
• 1-Meter Diving- 305.48, Bayleigh Cranford
• 3-Meter Diving- 324.75, Sarah Carruthers

Alabama had some other strong performances on top of the 200 medley relay. Emily Jones won the 100 backstroke in 51.55, a little more than half-a-second off her lifetime best of 50.75 from the UGA Fall Invite in November of last year.

They also won the 100 fly with Gaby Van Brunt swimming 52.92 to come in ahead of teammate Victoria Raymond who swam 53.22 for 2nd place. Van Brunt’s time was a little more than a second faster than the 54.17 she swam in October last year.

Men’s Recap

The Texas men won most of the events with just two individual events going to the Alabama Crimson Tide team.

They started with a win in the 200 medley relay with the team of Will Modglin (20.86), Nate Germonprez (23.21), Ryan Branon (20.60), and Rafael Fente Damers (18.90) coming together to swim 1:23.57 which was about a second faster than the Alabama ‘A’ team’s time of 1:24.70.

Rafael Fente Damers went on to participate in three more Longhorn event wins. He won the 50 freestyle in 19.37 and the 100 free in 42.40. His 100 free time is the current 2nd fastest time in the country this year behind Remi Fabiani of ASU.

He also swam on the Texas 400 freestyle relay which won with a time of 2:50.92. Fente Damers led off in 42.52. Nate Germonprez swam 2nd, splitting 42.64. Garrett Gould was 3rd in 42.56, and Will Modglin was 4th in 43.20.

David Johnston was the other Texas swimmer who won two events. He won the 500 in 4:14.08 which is the current number one time in the country, and the 1000 free in 8:43.95, also the fastest time in the country this season.

Freshman Campbell McKean won the 200 breaststroke in a personal best time of 1:53.38 and finished 2nd in the 100 breast at 51.93 behind Nate Germonprez, and 2nd in the 200 IM at 1:43.04 behind Rex Maurer.

Germonprez won the 100 breast in 51.87, and he finished 4th in the 200 breast at 1:55.59. Maurer won the 200 IM with his 1:42.78, and finished 2nd in the 200 free (1:33.64) and 200 back (1:41.03).

Both the 200 free and 200 backstroke events went to the Alabama team. Toni Dragoja won the 200 freestyle by almost two tenths over Maurer, swimming 1:33.48. This was nearly two seconds off his best of 1:31.88, but was more than a second faster than he swam at the beginning of November last year when he went 1:34.53 against Florida State and Louisiana State.

The 200 backstroke was won by Tommy Hagar, who swam 1:40.25 to set the fastest time in the country this season by nearly a second ahead of Maurer. Hagar’s best is 1:39.43 from NCAAs last season, and he was just a smidge faster the first time he swam it last season, coming in at 1:39.88 at the aforementioned Florida State and Louisiana State meet.

Other Event Winners

• 100 back- Will Modglin (TEXAS)- 45.07
• 100 fly- Ryan Branon (TEXAS)- 46.33
• 200 fly- Cooper Lucas (TEXAS)- 1:42.35
• 1-Meter Diving- Nick Harris (TEXAS)- 373.13
• 3-Meter Diving- Nick Harris (TEXAS)- 399.53

Up Next

Texas is back in action when they host Tennessee on October 24th, and Alabama’s next meet is not until November 7th when they race LSU and Florida State in Louisiana.