Men's swimming and diving
In a quad meet characterized by electric times and tight finishes — including one touch separated by one one-hundredth of a second — the men’s swimming and diving team defeated Indiana and Louisville comfortably, but was narrowly edged out by Michigan.
The Longhorns took down the Hoosiers by a 91-point margin and the Cardinals by 81 points. Long before the final event — the 400-yard freestyle relay — Texas had secured its win over the two teams, but the overall victor of the meet remained uncertain.
All-American sophomore Will Licon captured first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:57.11, good for the nation’s top time to date in that event.
Sophomore Jack Conger also got national recognition, earning the second-fastest time in the country this season with a dominating win in the 200-yard individual backstroke with a time of 1:45.18. Freshman Jonathan Roberts also hopped on the record train with the nation’s top mark in the 500 freestyle.
Michigan held the lead, but Texas kicked up a rally that narrowed its deficit, thanks to sophomore Mark Anderson’s and senior Will Chandler’s second- and third-place finishes in the 3-meter diving event.
However, Texas couldn’t catch up and was closely defeated by Michigan, 183-170.
Softball
Texas softball won its third fall scrimmage against Galveston Community College in a 10-3 blowout this weekend.
Galveston scored all three of its runs in the top of the third off a fielder’s choice, an illegal pitch by sophomore pitcher Lauren Slatten and an RBI groundout. To revive Texas’ pitching, freshman pitcher Erica Wright retired six hitters in order.
“Once you get on the mound, adrenaline takes over you, and you just get in the moment,” Wright said. “Erin [Shireman], the catcher, made some
really nice calls.”
The Longhorns scored scored one run in the bottom of the third and three in the fourth before blowing the game open in the fifth with six runs.
Texas faces St. Edward’s at McCombs Field at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Women's rowing
The women’s rowing team grabbed three first-place finishes Saturday at the Austin Rowing Club’s Head of the Colorado Regatta. Although it’s traditionally a 5,000-meter course, this year’s races were limited to 4,000 meters because of an infestation of cabomba weeds in Lady Bird Lake.
The first top finish came early in the day for the Longhorns, with Texas’ boats claiming the top seven spots in the open pair race at 8:10 a.m. The first-place boat finished with a time of 16:23.5.
Success continued in the open 8+ race, taking the top three spots.
Texas edged out a boat from Big 12 rival Oklahoma to place second in the first novice 8+ race with a time of 15:50.1.
The Longhorns also grabbed first place in the open 4+ race with a time of 15:34.3, which was good enough to beat out teams from SMU, Texas A&M and Rice.
Texas finished the day with 10 top-three finishes and will look to carry that momentum into next weekend when it competes at the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Women's soccer
Although Texas soccer entered the weekend barely hanging on to the final spot in the Big 12 Championship tournament, wins Friday and Sunday over Oklahoma and Baylor punched Texas’ ticket to the postseason.
It took only 45 seconds for the Longhorns to generate enough offense to knock off conference rival Oklahoma on Friday night.
Less than one minute into regulation, senior defender Whitney Jaynes gained possession along the left flank and chipped a cross into the 6-yard box where leaping freshman forward Morgan Murphy nodded the ball in for her first career goal.
Murphy’s header was Texas’ only shot on goal, but a stifling Longhorn defense held the Sooners to just six shots all game, with only two of those
on goal.
“Anytime you can get a ‘W,’ you’ll take that opportunity,” Texas head coach Angela Kelly said. “Credit to Oklahoma, this match was a back-and-forth battle. I’m just really pleased with the win.”
Texas took much longer to get the offense clicking Sunday against Baylor, but late heroics by sophomore midfielder Julia Dyche allowed the Longhorns to leave Waco with a 2-1 victory.
Junior midfielder Lindsey Meyer equalized with a goal in the 75th minute, and Dyche put Texas in the winner’s column when she blasted a rebound into the back of the net with just 30 seconds to go in regulation.
The Longhorns’ next action will take place in the regular season finale at home against Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. Friday.
Women's swimming and diving
Texas’ women’s swimming and diving team kicked off its season with a 3-0 start after a two-day quad meet this weekend against Michigan, Louisville and Indiana. Texas beat Michigan by a 199-154 margin, Indiana by a 204.5-148.5 margin and Louisville by a 243.5-109.5 margin.
Michigan and Indiana battled for a few wins in the pool and proved to be tough competitors, but by the conclusion of day one, Texas led after winning three events.
Sophomore Tasija Karosas, senior Gretchen Jaques, sophomore Brynne Wong and senior Sarah Denninghoff started off the meet with a 400 medley relay victory in 3:38.87. Jaques won again, leading a 1-2 Texas finish with a split of 1:01.37 in the 100 breaststroke, just in front of freshman Bethany Leap, who finished in 1:02.36.
It wasn’t until later in the day that sophomore Madisyn Cox solidified the third win for Texas, winning the 200 IM with a mark of 1:58.56. Cox also came out with a win in the 400 IM with a time of 4:14.51, due to the in-race disqualification of Louisville senior Tanja Kylliainen.
Day two began with a swift comeback by freshman Rebecca Millard, who closed the gap to gain yet another win for the Longhorns in the 200 freestyle relay. Jaques, Millard, Wong and Denninghoff clocked in at 1:32.24.
All-American senior diver Emma Ivory-Ganja placed first in Texas’ big 1-2-3 finish in the one-meter dive with 301.85 points, alongside teammates junior Meghan Houston and sophomore Murphy Bromberg.
