Head coach Bob Bowman took the dive into the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center’s pool with his team in Federal Way, Washington, celebrating taking home the championship in his inaugural season as head coach of the Longhorns. Bowman and the team finished a dominating season, remaining undefeated and taking home a conference championship, Coach of the Year, Swimmer of the Year and the return of the NCAA trophy to the Forty Acres.
“I remember in our first team meeting saying we can contend for a championship, in (my heart) I was like ehhh maybe next year,” Bowman said. “When they started getting better, we started doing some meets. I started doing some things so we were able to get our roster together a little bit.”
The team started off strong, taking an early lead on the opening night of the four-day meet. Texas scored the gold, after Florida was disqualified for an early start, in the 200-medley relay, setting a program record in the race with a time of 1:20.28. The quartet of swimmers earned the runner-up spot in the 800-free relay.
Sophomore Rex Maurer, who holds the American record for the 500 freestyle, scored Texas’s first individual NCAA title of the meet in the 500 freestyle. His performance at the NCAA meet landed him his first national title after previously earning the SEC Commissioner’s Cup Trophy at the Southeastern Conference Championship for scoring the most points.
The individual victories did not stop with Maurer. Junior Huber Kós also scored his first individual NCAA title in the 200-IM. Kós set the standard for the meet with an eye-grabbing performance, scoring the individual title and landing a school record. He broke the old record during the preliminaries, which was immediately replaced by his time in the finals.
“The people who are gonna win (national titles) are the people who train the most,” Kós said. “I feel like I’ve trained so hard this year for those moments and little finishes, little touches that make or break your swims.”
Maurer and Kós started the pattern of dominating in the events, but a series of record-breaking swimming continued throughout the team.
Senior Luke Hobson added to the stash of individual crowns earned during the meet on the third day. Hobson swam for the gold in the 200-freestyle, breaking his NCAA, University and American record. He joined an elite group of swimmers, earning his third-straight NCAA title.
“Luke is the quiet leader of the team; he is not very outspoken, but he does everything right,” Bowman said. “He lives the right way, he trains the right way, behaves the right way and it has been invaluable to teach me about Texas culture … (he’s) been very important for a smooth transition.”
Maurer and Kós continued their domination into day three. Both swimmers added new NCAA records on day three, Maurer in the 400-IM and Kós in the 100-backstroke. Kós broke yet another national record in the 100-backstroke.
On the last day of competition, Kós became the only athlete at the event to earn a national title in all three of his individual events. He set another NCAA record in the 200 backstroke to earn his third gold medal during this year’s national championship meet.
“I got very good and it got to a point where I couldn’t swim bad and I couldn’t make mistakes,” Kós said. “That’s really what I think brought me to those three wins. Just following Bob’s process and following the training he puts on, and just doing that to your best best ability, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
Kós was named the NCAA Swimmer of the Year following the completion of the meet. The ASU transfer remained a pivotal force in the team’s season and inevitable national victory in his first year on the team.
“I never thought that was going to be a possibility this year, especially coming off the Olympics,” Kós said. “I thought this year it might be a little bit harder to do mentally.”
The Longhorns finished the meet with 490 points, followed by California with 471 points. The victory makes Bowman the first Division I swimming and diving head coach to win a national championship in back-to-back years in two different teams, earning him the title of NCAA Coach of the Year.
“To be frank, this one is really great because I actually got to celebrate it. Last time we had dinner after the meet, and that was literally it,” Bowman said. “I am very much looking forward to doing this, going home and lighting the tower and doing all the things that happen at Texas and hopefully getting ready to win another one.”
