Following football’s victory over Oklahoma, Texas’ men’s swimming and diving team picked up a victory at home and dominated in Dallas on the same weekend as the Red River Rivalry.

The Longhorns opened up Big 12 play in a dual meet against TCU in Austin on Oct. 7 during the Dust Off Your Boots Invitational. Texas defeated the visiting Horned Frogs with ease, with a final score of 180-95. At the same time, a crop of swimmers and divers trekked up to Dallas to compete against five other schools in the 2022 SMU Classic. 

During the two-day meet, the Longhorns scored a total of 348 points, 42 more than second-place Texas A&M. The Texas swimmers were led by junior Carson Foster, who scored a total of 106 points.

Foster competed in four individual events, placing first in each. In his first event, the 400-yard IM, he finished with an impressive time of 3:38.79, almost six full seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer. The 100-yard backstroke race was much closer, however, as Foster posted a 46.18 and beat his opponent by four-tenths of a second.

After his first two individual events, the Cincinnati, Ohio native competed in back-to-back relays. Foster was the anchor of the 800 Free Relay along with sophomore Luke Hobson, fifth-year Daniel Krueger, and junior Coby Carrozza. The relay crew for the 800 Free beat the next closest team by seven seconds, finishing with a 6:19.24.

He then joined senior Caspar Corbeau, senior Cole Crane, and Krueger for the 200-yard medley relay on Saturday morning. Foster set the tone as he swam a 21.72 on the backstroke portion, only one-hundredth of a second behind the leader. The Longhorns’ A Relay ended with third in the event, the only event in which Foster did not take first place throughout the weekend. 

Foster began swimming his individual events again, taking first in the 200-yard backstroke. Beating his opponent by nearly two full seconds, Foster’s 1:40.90 could not be matched. His final race of the weekend was the 200 IM, beating another Texas A&M swimmer as he finished with a 1:42.68.

Not all of Texas’ points in the SMU Classic came from the men’s swimmers, as junior Noah Duperre led the Texas divers with a total of 29 points. Duperre’s first event was on the one-meter platform, starting the day by scoring a 329.05 and earning second place. He bounced back off of the three-meter platform, scoring a 354.45 as he took first place and beat his next closest competitor by over 17 points.

Texas men’s swimming and diving will see their next competition when they host both Texas A&M and Indiana at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin on Oct. 21. The diving meet will begin at 11:30 a.m. while swimming starts at 2 p.m.