No. 1 Texas men’s swim and dive shut out Louisville and Ohio State during the first day of the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown on Friday. 

The Longhorns were dominant from the start, with a one-two finish from record holder and junior Rex Maurer and sophomore Cooper Lucas in the 500-yard freestyle. Maurer gained five seconds from his record time, finishing with a 4:09.13, and Lucas not far behind with a 4:16.18. 

Texas continued its streak of one-two finishes in both the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke. 

American record holder Will Modglin and 2024 Olympic gold medalist Hubert Kós finished 0.03 seconds apart in the 100-yard backstroke, with Modglin touching first at 44.45 and Kós right behind at 44.48. 

Kós, a transfer from Arizona State, made his Texas debut back in October of 2024, winning the 100-yard back, the 200-yard back and the 100-yard fly against LSU. He then took a short competition break before returning on Friday. 

“This is my first meet back. I took a little break the first half of the semester, so I’m just getting back into yards, and hopefully it will just keep getting better and better,” Kós said. 

Kós swam under head coach Bob Bowman during their time together at ASU. Kós credits Bowman for helping him to develop a competitive mindset that led to him breaking school records at ASU. 

“He has improved overall. He broke a couple of world records in the short-course meter pool this fall. His techniques have gotten much better, his underwater kicking has gotten much better.  So he’s just overall a better swimmer,” Bowman said about Kós. 

Team record holder and three-time All-American Nate Germonprez won the 100-yard breast event, finishing half a body’s length ahead of his competition at a time of 50.86. Close behind him was freshman Campbell McKean, who finished in second with a 51.92. 

If there was one event former head coach Eddie Reese was known for, it was the 200-yard freestyle. He mastered his coaching strategy of mid-distance events while coaching at Texas from 1979 to 2024. 

However, the Longhorns couldn’t land a first place finish in the event due to Louisville senior Guy Brookes, who beat out Maurer by 0.16 milliseconds, finishing with 1:32.61. 

In a post-meet interview, Bowman emphasized the improvement needed in the team’s freestyle events, particularly related to starts and turns. 

“We’re really poor on some of these turns,” Bowman said. “That happens when you’re training hard, you can kind of get tired and sloppy in some of those details.”

Ohio State’s 2025 Big Ten Freshman of the Year Matthew Klinge took first in the 100-yard butterfly, out-swimming Texas sophomore Ksawery Masiuk, who finished second with 45.43.  

In his next individual event, Kós won the 200-yard individual medley over a body length ahead of his competition. His backstrokes underwater carried him to a 45.74 split in the first 100 yards, finishing the event with a 1:40.69. 

The Longhorns finished with a combined team score of 1,027, blowing both Louisville University and Ohio State out of the water. Louisville finished in second with a score of 947 and Ohio State finished with a score of 386. 

Next, Texas is looking ahead to its rivalry meet against Texas A&M Jan. 30 at the Rec Center Natatorium in College Station. 

“It is a big rivalry, so we might as well make it important, make it fast and we’ll see what happens,” Kós said.