Men’s swimming ties record with 12th NCAA title; Reese stands alone

By Steve Lansdale

ATLANTA, Ga. — Two Texas swimmers set NCAA and U.S. Open records, and another improved upon his own American record to help lead the Longhorns to their 12^th national championship.

The national title was the 12^th in program history, tying Michigan for the most in NCAA history. With the championship, UT head coach Eddie Reese passes former [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]Ohio State coach Mike Peppe for the most team titles by any coach in the history of the sport. Reese is the only coach in the sport with NCAA titles in four different decades. During Reese’s tenure in Austin, UT has finished in the top two 23 times, and in the top three 30 times.

“When I started this sport, I never had a plan to be an Olympic coach, never had a plan to win an NCAAs,” Reese said. “I just love to see people go fast. So I’m honored to break Mike Peppe’s record, because I swam in his 11^th win, in 1962, at Ohio State.”

The Longhorns didn’t just win the national championship; they pretty much lapped the field. UT piled up 541.5 points, easily outdistancing California, which finished second with 351, and Florida, which finished with 334. North Carolina State placed fourth with 314 points, while Georgia finished fifth, with 239.5 points.

UT’s Joseph Schooling shared for Swimmer of the Meet honors with Cal’s Ryan Murphy and Florida’s Caeleb Dressel, while Reese earned his second consecutive College Swimming Coaches Association of America Coach of the Meet award a day after winning the CSCAA’s Coach of the Year award.

Schooling and teammate Jack Conger became the first two swimmers ever to finish the 200-yard butterfly in less than 1:39. Schooling won the event in 1:37.97 to lower his American record by more than a second, just edging Conger, who finished in 1:38.06.

Schooling also set new pool, school, Big 12, NCAA Championship, U.S. Open, American and NCAA records while winning the 100-yard butterfly in 44.01, breaking the record of 44.18 Austin Staab of Stanford had held for seven years.

Teammate Will Licon won his second straight title in the 200-yard butterfly, setting new NCAA, American, U.S. Open, UT, Big 12 and NCAA Championship records when he touched the wall in 1:48.12, shattering the previous mark of 1:48.66, set by Arizona’s Kevin Cordes in 2014.

“That was special,” Licon said. “I know … to be in the running to win that race, I had to get out quick, and was able to do that and come back hard.”

Texas junior Mark Anderson scored in all three diving events for the second consecutive year, finishing fourth on the 10-meter platform with 421.55 points.

Overall, the Longhorns won nine individual and relay titles at the meet, the most since they won an NCAA record 11 in 2001.

Conger, Clark Smith, Townley Haas and Schooling set new school, Big 12, NCAA, U.S. Open and NCAA Championship records while winning the 800-yard freestyle relay, while Brett Ringgold, Schooling, Conger and John Murray set pool, school and Big 12 records while winning the 200-yard freestyle relay. John Shebat, Licon, Schooling and Conger won UT’s second straight — and 13^th overall — title in the 400-yard individual medley relay.

Haas rewrote numerous records in the 200-yard freestyle, winning the event in 1:30.46 to set new NCAA, American, U.S. Open, school, pool, Big 12 and NCAA Championship records.

“Townley, in the 200 free, everybody said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’” Reese said. “Well, it had never been done before — you shouldn’t have seen it.”

Conger finished as the runner-up in the 200-yard butterfly, despite the fact that he improved on his American record by finishing in 1:38.06.

When asked what separates this year’s Texas team from the others who have won NCAA championships for him, Reese gave the credit to his swimmers who endure his rigorous training regimen in order to have a chance to take home more hardware at the end of the season.

“If you go over all the values that swimming gives people, one of them is delayed gratification, which is a lost art in our country, sadly,” Reese said. “We started training in September for success at the end of March.

“Everybody says I’m a good coach, that I’ve got a magic wand — the only magic’s in the swimmers.”

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