Texas vs. Virginia
- November 4-5, 2022
- SCY (25 Yards)
- Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
- Live Results
This weekend, #1-ranked Virginia women and #8-ranked men travel down to Austin, Texas, to face off against the #2-ranked Texas women and #3-ranked Texas men in a two-day long dual meet. Unlike last year’s version of the meet, which was contested in a traditional format, changes were made to the style of this year’s meet in an effort to draw a larger crowd.
“We’re looking to utilize the resources we have at Texas to create a one-of-a-kind dual meet experience and craft something that is unique in the NCAA,” Ryan Hewe, the assistant director of Texas athletic communications told SwimSwam. “Ideally, this we’ll be something we do once in the fall and once in the spring as a way to get the Austin swimming community excited – there are a lot of club swimmers in the Austin area.
We also want to grow support within the student, Longhorn, and Austin sports fan communities. Austin has always been a world-class swimming city and this is another step in working to solidify that legacy going forward.”
On Friday, the first day of the meet, the men’s and women’s competitions will be scored together, contrary to a typical dual meet in which men and women are scored separately. Bevo, a Longhorn that is Texas’s official live mascot, will be present at the Lee and Joe Jamail Center that day. In addition, there will be music, a DJ, a light show, and “ISL-style” swimmer introductions prior to the meet. The 100 IM and mixed 400 free relay, events that are not typically contested in NCAA competition aside from intrasquad meets, will be swum on Friday. Platform diving will also be contested on this day.
Saturday’s meet format is more similar to a traditional dual meet, where the men and women will be scored separately. Following the end of the competition, there will be a “Celebration of Life” ceremony held for late announcer Sam Kendricks, who called several Texas meets in his lifetime.
Racing begins 5:30 PM CST on Friday and 10:30 AM CST on Saturday.
There will be several head-to-head showdowns from some of the top swimmers in the NCAA at this meet. Take a look at some of them below:
Women:
- Lydia Jacoby and Anna Elendt, arguably the best 1-2 breaststroke punch in the country, could face off against Virginia’s massive group of NCAA scoring-caliber 100/200 breaststrokers, which includes names such as Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, Anna Keating, Zoe Skirboll, Emma Weber, and Jaycee Yegher.
- Stacked with names like Kelly Pash, Emma Sticklen, and Olivia Bray, Texas holds the nation’s deepest butterfly group. However, Virginia is riding the high-end momentum, as they have defending 100 fly NCAA champion Kate Douglass and 200 fly champion Alex Walsh. In addition, Gretchen Walsh is coming off a meet where she split the fastest 50 fly ever (21.91) and swam the fastest 100 fly ever in a practice suit (50.53).
- Walsh (1:45.25), Ella Nelson (1:45.81), and Pash (1:45.86) are the three fastest swimmers in the nation for the 200 free this year, and there could be an extremely close race between the three of them. In fact, Pash and Walsh’s personal best times of 1:42.38 and 1;42.28 respectively are not that far off from each other as well.
Men:
- Noah Nichols and Caspar Corbeau are the second and third-fastest 100 breaststrokers in the NCAA this season, holding season-bests of 52.23 and 52.58 respectively. Nichols in particular is coming off of a stellar UVA-Florida meet, where he went faster than his 100 breast time from mid-season invites last year. Nichols and Corebeau also have similar season-bests of 1:55.00 and 1:55.26 in the 200 breast, so look for a tight race between the two swimmers in that event as well.
- The 200 back could see a battle between Carson Foster and Jack Aikins, as both of them are NCAA All-Americans in the event.
- Matt King and Danny Krueger, the two fastest 100 freestylers this year, will be primed for some sprinting battles. Krueger is known for going fast in-season, and held the top time in the nation (42.69) for the first month of this season. However, that all changed when King went 42.46 at the UVA-Florida meet, also swimming faster than he was at midseasons last year and flashing some early fall speed that we haven’t seen from him in the past.
- This isn’t a specific race, but Virginia’s Tim Connery will be racing against his former teammates in his old pool this weekend, as he spent his freshman year at Texas before transferring to Virginia this summer.
Full Event Schedule:
Friday:
- 200 Medley Relay
- 200 Free
- 100 Fly
- 100 Breast
- 50 Free
- 500 Free- women
- 100 IM
- 500 Free- men
- 100 Back
- 400 Free Relay – Mixed
Saturday:
- 400 Medley Relay
- 1000 Free
- 200 IM
- 200 backstroke
- 100 free
- 200 Fly
- 200 Breast
- 200 Free Relay
this WISHES it was battle at the burr
Except with D1 quality swimming…
This will be really exciting for the swimmers parents and few friends in attendence…
It was amazing!
Me and my team @ wloo are going but a frickin high school meet got in the way and i cant go:((((((((
I submitted a request to Texas to stream it. I am sure it won’t make a difference, but I’m petty.
In all reality, it really is a disappointing. Frustrating to see the effort and money put into these things just to close them off to the world of everyone else who wants to see and participate in the action. I could find any other badminton or cross country race from tiny schools but we miss out on the biggest duel meet of the season. Just disappointing to see the lack of effort for those who can’t go.
And Longhorn Network literally shows reruns of press conferences all day and very little live action. With all the money that network costs, and backed by ESPN, every single Texas sport that is not already on a bigger channel should be covered by LHN
This could be one of the best attempts to jazz up a meet since Ray Bussard and the Tennessee Timettes! Who can forget the national anthem with the flag coming down the lane being held by bikini clad timettes. Priceless.
Why do Americans need light shows to turn up to things? People always bring that up when talking about marketing the sport and even Justin Ress mentioned there was no light show at the recent world Cup stop, can’t you just appreciate the sport?
The lights serve as a distraction so that we’re not constantly brawling in the stadium/on the stadium ground. That’s why there are so many more fights in the stands in soccer.
(Also, ISL is run by Europeans, and most of the meets have been in Europe).
Braden for the WIN!
You’re asking why try something new to attract a larger crowd when the previous way of doing things has not necessarily been working?
you old bro
Battle of the Burr making waves!
What next? Rowdy on commentary?