Texas swimming and diving will compete in the Southeastern Conference Championships starting Feb. 17 with hopes of taking home the title in their inaugural season in the SEC.
The Longhorns will take on Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama in a six-day meet in Athens, Georgia. Women’s head coach Carol Capitani said the SEC Championship meet brings a different level of competition for the team that previously competed in the Big 12 Conference.
“Winning is winning,” Capitani said. “Swimming against the best always makes you better, It’s going to be a change (and) it’s going to be fun.”
Men’s head coach Bob Bowman said the SEC Championship gives the team the opportunity to “step up.” Bowman, who previously coached in the Pac-12 conference at Arizona State, said the high level of competition at the meet is welcomed, and knows it can be beneficial before the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship.
“I know what it is like and the benefits you can get from racing the relay (teams) that are going to be in the top three at the NCAA (championships),” Bowman said.
The men’s team has been filled with a year of first. Bowman is in his inaugural season as head coach at UT, taking over after former head coach Eddie Reese retired following the 2024 Olympic trials. Bowman said he wanted to respect the tradition Reese had built but also wanted to grow and develop the program further.
“It’s really been amazing to be part of the organization at Texas, to just feel like every day I come to a place where everything just exudes excellence,” Bowman said. “Every part of it, from the time you step on this campus until I leave at night you are surrounded by excellence, and also expectations which I don’t mind I think that’s a good thing,”
The change in the coaching brought in a change in the team’s training regime, junior Hubert Kós said following the team’s opening home meet against Indiana. Kós followed Bowman from Arizona State and has been a strong performer on the team this year, with 14 first-place finishes in various events this season.
“For the guys it’s been a long process to kind of get used to Bob, to get used to the plan and sort of training we have,” Kós said. “I think they finally started to get a grasp of it, and it showed here today.”
Bowman and Capitani both said they are looking forward to the SEC Championships and looking to put their teams in the best spot to compete at a high level at the NCAA Championships, starting on March 19 for the women’s team and March 26 for the men’s.
“We’re looking to use this (championship) as a rehearsal for the NCAAs. … We have a process of things that we want to go through at a championship meet,” Bowman said. “There’s no better way to learn and perfect that or improve it than to actually go through a meet like this where you are doing it under the pressure of competition.”
