The Longhorns return to Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Wednesday as host of the 2013 Big 12 Championships, looking to bring home their 11th Big 12 team title.

Texas (4-3) will be swimming against the four Big 12 schools with women’s swimming teams: Iowa State (4-5), Kansas (6-4), TCU (4-3) and West Virginia (3-4).

Kansas’ 6-4 season record is the only one higher than Texas’ record of 4-3, which is tied with TCU. 

The Longhorns have won 10 of the 16 championships since the conference formed. Texas won its last title in 2011, the last time the championships were held in Austin, and finished second in 2012, behind only Texas A&M.

In its last performance, Texas dominated against SMU, winning 228-66, but had trouble breaking away from Arizona, solidifying a win in the last event pulling ahead to 154-146.

Redshirt junior Maren Taylor will anchor the diving squad, coming off victories on both the one-meter and three-meter boards in her last competition. Taylor was awarded Big 12 Diver of the Week for her performance. Close behind her is senior Shelby Cullinan, who finished second to Taylor on both boards at the same meet.

Senior swimmer Laura Sogar is expected to finish her senior season strong after winning the 200-yard breaststroke in her last meet. Sogar is the UT record holder for that stroke. Sophomore Gretchen Jaques has also made an impact with the team this year, pulling in the top 25 for three strokes and winning the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard butterfly, where she came half a second shy of the NCAA automatic-qualifying mark.

The four-day event begins with preliminary rounds Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and will continue with finals for the 200-medley relay and the 800-freestyle relay at 6 p.m.

Published on February 27, 2013 as "Longhorns host Big 12, look to capture title".