Texas men’s swimming and diving rolls to 41st consecutive conference crown

By Riley Zayas

Diving coach Matt Scoggin let out a triumphant yell as he raised the Big 12 trophy high into the air. On swimming and diving head coach Eddie Reese’s face was a look of satisfaction and relief. It was a day of triumph for the Texas men’s swimming and diving team as they solidified their spot as the best team in Big 12 men’s swimming and diving for yet another season — the 41st straight season, to be exact.

“We started the meet real well,” Reese said after the first day of competition. “We had great diving and pretty good relays. There probably wasn’t a better way to start the meet.”

Dynasties are defined by [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]consistent victory, and the men’s swimming and diving team has more than reached that high level expected of the college swimming program with more victories than any other in history. That could be seen this past week in Morgantown, W. Va., as the Longhorns scored 1,127 points at the Big 12 Championship to claim their 41st consecutive conference title, an achievement that has yet to be matched by any of UT’s other athletic programs. West Virginia finished a distant second, with 873 points, and TCU finished third with 654.

Texas has had a multitude of successful teams over the 136 years of the school’s existence, from the 2005 College World Series-winning baseball team, to the 2006 Rose Bowl-winning football team, to the recent NCAA title won by the men’s tennis team in 2019. But those are hard to compare to the hardware the No. 1 men’s swimming and diving team has brought back to Austin over the past few decades.

The men entered into this year’s Big 12 championship as the overwhelming favorites, having been ranked No. 1 in the country since the season began and with their sights set on a goal much higher: winning an NCAA title. But teams led by Reese don’t let up at any meet, and that was no more apparent than in Morgantown as the Horns dominated their Big 12 counterparts, sweeping the meet’s individual honors. Reese was named Coach of the Meet, Scoggin was named Co-Diving Coach of the meet, Jordan Windle took home Diver of the Meet, Swimmer of the Meet went to Daniel Krueger and Freshman of the Meet was handed to Alvin Jiang. That’s not just a successful meet, that is a dominance of the meet.

One of this season’s biggest storylines was the key addition of world-class sprinter Maxime Rooney, a five time all-american and transfer from Southeastern Conference powerhouse Florida. The five-time SEC champion wasted no time at his first and only Big 12 Championship, swimming the butterfly leg on the 200 medley relay team that took first place in 1:23.56, winning by 3.78 seconds, an eternity in a short-distance relay such as this one. Rooney also was a part of the 800 relay that finished first in 6:16.56 and the 200 freestyle relay, which won in 1:16.48, and made it to the podium by taking second in his best event, the 100 butterfly, behind Jiang, who won the event in 45.11.

Kreuger anchored four of UT’s relays, each of which finished first. Individually, he won the 50 free (19.13 seconds) and the 100 free (41.26 seconds), and came in second in the 200 free (1:34.58).

“It’s just incredible,” Krueger said. “Everybody I’ve been training with, day in, day out … they’ve pushed themselves really hard, and it’s great to have that atmosphere when it comes down to race day and we’re all held behind the blocks.”

In the diving events, Windle won the 3-meter springboard with 553.15 points and the platform with 520.40, and Grayson Campbell placed first in the 1-meter springboard, with 442.45 to edge Windle’s 391.20-point runner-up finish.

Windle acknowledged he was fatigued, but was proud of his performance.

“I felt pretty good, just a little tired throughout the whole week of training of competing, but I saw that everyone was coming to watch the event, and watch all the boys compete together,” said Windle. “I hadn’t ever really won a dive, lights-out, overall, which kind of drew a fire in my belly. I wanted to put on a show, and hopefully I did so.”

 “It’s really amazing that all the boys can dive back to back like this,” Windle said. “We’ve been really working on consistency throughout our whole careers and I think it’s really showing in Big 12s.”

The NCAA Championships will be held March 18-21 in Athens, Ga., where the Longhorns will seek to accomplish what they could not last season, when they were edged by Cal for the NCAA title, 560-475.

This dominance in the Big 12 is built around a consistency instilled by Reese and enforced by the tradition of Texas men’s swimming and diving.

“Anytime we compete for Texas, you want to absolutely pull out your best,” Campbell said. “In order to go back to back and win two titles competing against our teammates and the rest of the Big 12, it takes your best out there. Any meet we go as Texas, you know you’re going to be competing against your teammates. We easily have one of the best teams in the country.”
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