Men's cross country
Texas men’s cross country closed its season with a No. 26 finish at the NCAA Championships this Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana.
After securing one of just 31 spots at the championship, Texas struggled to run its best race.
All-American senior Craig Lutz fell around 4,000 meters into the race after getting bumped. Texas got caught behind the lead pack and struggled to gain any headway during the remainder of the competition.
“It was really disappointing [when] Lutz went down, but he got up and finished 51st,” said Brad Herbster, assistant coach for cross country/distance. “Was it what he wanted? No. But he didn’t quit. He very easily could have thrown in the towel and just said, ‘It’s not my day,’ but he kept fighting..”
Colorado won the men’s title, with Oklahoma State representing the Big 12 in ninth.
Regardless of the disappointing performance, Herbster said the race showed positive notes.
“They just kept fighting all the way through,” Herbster said. “Not a great performance, but they fought. That’s the one thing we can take away from this. They kept moving up, but it just wasn’t the Longhorns’ day today. We’re the No. 26 team in the country, but we’re a lot better than that.”
Men's swimming and diving
As the Texas Diving Invitational came to a close Saturday afternoon, the men’s swimming and diving team walked away with plenty to brag about.
On Thursday, the first day of the meet, the Big 12 Conference announced All-American sophomore Mark Anderson as the league’s Men’s Diver of the Week. Anderson, who received the title for the first time, lived up to the honor through the weekend competition.
Anderson was the only Longhorn competing in the platform event, and he was the only one Texas needed.
After the first round, Hawaii’s Amund Gismervik stood tall on the platform, boasting his lead in the event — but first place wasn’t his for long. Anderson climbed the stairs to the top of the platform and took his place for his second dive. Leaping off the concrete to perform his four-and-a-half somersaults almost flawlessly, Anderson garnered 77.7 points for the dive. Gismervik couldn’t do enough to catch up. Anderson finished with 441.75 points, securing victory in the event Saturday, the final day of the invitational.
While Anderson made a splash at the meet, junior Cory Bowersox and Gismervik competed in the invitational’s closest event, the 3-meter finals.
Gismervik took the lead halfway through the event, but Bowersox earned 91.2 points on a dive for a late spark to narrow Gismervik’s lead. Bowersox continued to gain ground, as the event came to a close, but his slow start came back to haunt him, as Gismervik won with 440.30 points — less than a point ahead of Bowersox’s 439.50.
Men’s diving will compete at the USA Diving Nationals next on Dec. 16.
Women's swimming and diving
Texas women’s swimming and diving swept the Texas Diving Invitational this past weekend at the Lee and Joe Jamail Swimming Center.
The Longhorns continued to win by large margins against strong teams, such as Cal and Arizona State, which were also present in every round of finals for the 3-meter, 1-meter and platform dives.
Senior All-American Emma Ivory-Ganja placed first in a 1-2 Texas finish Thursday in the 3-meter dive with 395.40 points — a new personal best. Junior Meghan Houston placed behind Ivory-Ganja by a 57.5-point difference.
On Friday, Houston was back on the board in the finals. After trailing for the first three rounds, she came in first with 304.25 points, a slim 6-point advantage over University of Houston’s Danielle Shedd’s 298.25 points. This was the closest event of the weekend, as the top-three 1-meter finalists all scored within 10 points of each other.
The final day of diving resulted in another 1-2 Texas win, wrapping up the invitational with three straight victories for the Longhorns. Sophomore All-American Murphy Bromburg gained a large margin over competitors with her third, fourth and fifth dives, earning 80-plus points each. Bromburg stole the platform with 360.70 points, a 50.20 lead over second place winner Ivory-Ganja.
Ivory-Ganja earned honors as Big 12 Diver of the Week this past Thursday.
The diving season will continue Dec. 16-21 at the USA Diving Winter Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.
