The No. 7 Longhorns trailed No. 5 Stanford 144.5 to 138.5 Saturday afternoon at the Cardinal’s Avery Aquatics Center with one race left — the 400 freestyle relay. The Longhorns needed one group to win the event and another to finish second or third for them to erase the Cardinal’s lead.

And Texas did just that.

Relay “A” of Gretchen Jaques, Bethany Adams, Sarah Denninghoff and Kelsey Amundsen won the race, while the “B” relay of Samantha Tucker, Alex Hooper, Shelby Webber and Kelsey LeNeave took third gaining what proved to be the decisive points in meet.

“I think everybody played their part today,” head coach Carol Capitani said. “There were people in each event who found a way to make something happen. It was just a great team effort all the way around.”

It was not all good news this weekend, as Texas fell to No. 3 Cal on Friday 172-128 at Cal’s Spieker Aquatic complex despite Kaitlin Pawlowicz and Maren Taylor’s two victories.

The Texas divers continue fall competition Nov. 15 at the Houston Invitational while the Texas swimmers will compete at the USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championships (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.