Press release courtesy of Texas Swimming and Diving.
WHAT: No. 6 Texas (8-3) visits No. 10 Arizona for the Longhorns’ final dual meet of the season. The meet will be contested in separate sessions with the final score tabulated after Saturday’s session.
WHEN:
Friday, Jan. 31 – 3 p.m. CT
Saturday, Feb. 1 – 11 a.m. CT
WHERE: Hillenbrand Aquatic Center – Tucson, Ariz.
LAST MEETING vs. ARIZONA: No. 10 Texas defeated No. 5 Arizona by a 154-146 margin on Feb. 1, 2013 in Austin.
LAST TIME OUT: Texas suffered a 157.5-142.5 defeat at the hands of No. 4 Georgia on Jan. 11 in Austin. Senior swimmer Lily Moldenhauer won two events and defeated the reigning short course world champion in the 100-yard backstroke.
The Big 12 Conference selected Moldenhauer as the league’s Women’s Swimmer of the Week on Jan. 22 Senior diver Maren Taylor was tabbed as the Big 12 Women’s Diver of the Week for her performances against Auburn and Georgia.
Texas was scheduled to host TCU last Friday (Jan. 24) but the meet was canceled due to inclement weather.
TEXAS DIVERS WIN TEAM TITLE AT USA DIVING WINTER NATIONALS
The Longhorns’ women’s divers joined the UT men to win the combined team title for a second straight year at the USA Diving Winter National Championships (Dec. 17-22).
Led by individual event champions Maren Taylor and Murphy Bromberg, the UT women finished second in the women’s team standings. Taylor won the individual three-meter title with a cumulative total of 923.90 points and earned a spot on the U.S. roster for this summer’s FINA World Cup in Shanghai, China.
Joining Taylor in Shanghai will be freshman Murphy Bromberg, who earned her spot on the U.S. World Cup roster by winning the platform event at the USA Diving Winter Nationals. Taylor and Bromberg joined Texas freshman Michael Hixon and Texas-Ex Troy Dumais on the U.S. team at the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Taylor was a finalist in the three-meter event in Barcelona while Bromberg was a finalist in the synchronized platform event.
In her first season with the Longhorns after transferring from UCLA, junior Emma Ivory-Ganja won bronze in the three-meter event at the USA Diving Winter Nationals. Bromberg added a runner-up finish alongside former Ohio State diver Cheyenne Cousineau in the synchro platform event.
TEXAS INVITE YIELDS NCAA AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS
The Longhorns reaped the fruits of their rigorous fall training at the annual Texas Invitational (Dec. 5-7), where they registered a pair of NCAA automatic-qualifying marks.
UT opened the second night of the Texas Invite with a NCAA automatic qualifier in the 200 medley relay, where Lily Moldenhauer, Gretchen Jaques, Skylar Smith and Ellen Lobb finished in 1:37.60, less than a tenth of a second off of USC’s winning time.
Samantha Tucker added a top-10 national mark in the 200 freestyle and placed second overall at 1:44.63. Tucker joined Lobb, Moldenhauer and Jaques to post a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in the 400 freestyle relay at 3:15.93.
LONGHORNS AMONG NATION’S ELITE
UT veterans and newcomers alike have posted numerous swims that rank among the top-25 swims in the country.
The Longhorns show off their range in the freestyle events with top-25 marks in four of the five freestyle events contested at the NCAA Championships. Samantha Tucker’s 200 freestyle mark of 1:44.63 ranks seventh in the country, and the Austinite ranks 21st nationally in the 100 freestyle at 48.73. Junior Kelsey LeNeave holds the No. 25 slot nationally in the 200 freestyle at 1:45.89.
Junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz leads the distance contingent and holds top-15 national times in the 1,650 freestyle and the 1,000 freestyle, the latter of which is most commonly contested in dual meets. The Vienna, Va., native ranks 11th in the 1000 at 9:48.06 and 15th in the 1,650 freestyle at 16:12.39. Senior Ellen Lobb rounds out the Longhorns’ top-25 freestylers with her No. 18 national time in the 50 freestyle at 22.41.
NATIONAL TOP-25 FREESTYLERS
50 Freestyle
18. Ellen Lobb – 22.41
100 Freestyle
21. Sam Tucker – 48.73
200 Freestyle
7. Sam Tucker – 1:44.55
25. Kelsey LeNeave 1:45.89
1,000 Freestyle
13. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 9:48.06
1,650 Freestyle
15. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 16:12.39
Senior Lily Moldenhauer, a former national high school record holder in the 100 backstroke, ranks 14th nationally in that event at 52.40. Freshman Tasija Karosas has thrived in her semester-plus under coaches Carol Capitani and Roric Fink. The Stowe, Vt., native holds college swimming’s 13th-fastest mark in the 200 backstroke at 1:54.32, well under her previous top time of 1:55.49 from the NCSA Junior Nationals last March.
NATIONAL TOP-25 BACKSTROKERS
100 Backstroke
14. Lily Moldenhauer – 52.40
200 Backstroke
13. Tasija Karosas – 1:54.32
Junior Gretchen Jaques can ably fill any of three strokes – breaststroke, butterfly or freestyle – on the Longhorns’ medley relays. Only NCAA champion Laura Sogar has been faster in the 100 breaststroke at Texas than Jaques, who clocked a personal best of 59.39, the No. 7 time in the country at the Texas Invitational. Jaques also ranks 19th nationally in the 200 breaststroke at 2:10.42.
NATIONAL TOP-25: BREASTSTROKE
100 Breaststroke
7. Gretchen Jaques – 59.39
200 Breaststroke
19. Gretchen Jaques – 2:10.42
No Texas freshman has chopped time off of lifetime bests more so than Madisyn Cox of Lubbock. The former Texas state high school champion in the 200 individual medley arrived on campus with a personal best of 1:59.31. Her new lifetime best of 1:56.83 from the Texas Invitational ranks her 13th nationally.
As a high school senior last February, Cox logged a lifetime best of 4:16.11 in the 400 individual medley. Cox has chopped over six seconds off of her personal best in four months of training in Austin, and her top mark of 4:09.99 is good for the 15th-fastest time in college swimming.
NATIONAL TOP-25: INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
200 IM
13. Madisyn Cox – 1:56.83
400 IM
13. Kaitlin Pawlowicz – 4:09.56
15. Madisyn Cox – 4:09.99
Madisyn Cox – Personal Bests
Event Before Texas Through 1st semester at UT
200 IM 1:59.31 1:56.83
400 IM 4:16.11 4:09.99
200 BR 2:14.13 2:11.90
THE 2013-14 LONGHORNS: Under second-year head coach Carol Capitani (cap-it-TAN-ee), second-year assistant coach Roric Fink and 20thyear diving coach Matt Scoggin, Texas returns eight All-Americans from the 2012-13 team that won the Big 12 Championship and placed ninth at the NCAA Championships.
Senior Samantha Tucker collected her first individual All-America selection in the 200 freestyle at the 2013 NCAA Championships. Her All-America classmates include Alex Hooper, Ellen Lobb, Lily Moldenhauer. Tucker has joined Lobb, Hooper and Moldenhauer to earn multiple All-America honors in relay events over the past three seasons.
Senior Maren Taylor leads a traditionally strong corps of Longhorn divers. The Arlington, Va., native made a triumphant return to the sport last season after rehabilitating a dislocated right elbow sustained at the 2011 NCAA Championships.
Taylor earned All-America honors in the one-meter and platform diving events last season before earning a spot on the U.S. roster to compete at the FINA World Championships, where she placed 11th in the three-meter event. Freshman Murphy Bromberg also represented the U.S. at Worlds in Barcelona and placed seventh in the synchronized platform diving event with Ohio State’s Cheyenne Cousineau.
Sophomore diver Meghan Houston added a bronze medal in the three-meter synchronized diving event at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
All totaled, Texas welcomes 12 newcomers in the form of 10 true freshman and two transfers. Junior diver Emma Ivory-Ganja earned All-America honors in the three-meter and platform diving events last season at UCLA. Junior swimmer Kimmy Phillips was an NCAA Championships qualifier last season for North Texas.
Texas has picked up significant early contributions from freshmen Tasija Karosas, Madisyn Cox and the aforementioned Bromberg. Cox won two swimming events in the win over Rice and added three more wins in UT’s victory over North Carolina. Karosas registered wins in the 100 and 200 backstroke events against North Carolina.
