Women’s swimming and diving cruises to another Big 12 title
By Steve Lansdale
AUSTIN, Texas — The No. 7 Texas women’s swimming and diving team continued its dominance over the rest of the conference, sweeping all seven events Sunday to win its 14th straight Big 12 championship.
The Longhorns cruised to the title with 1,043 points, easily outdistancing runner-up Kansas (650.5 points) and nearly doubling the score put up by third-place Iowa State (570.5).
Texas head coach Carol Capitani said the team title was particularly gratifying because it reflected the culmination of individual accomplishments by so many Longhorns.
“I feel like every night we had a lot to celebrate,” Capitani said. “Almost every event there was somebody who stood up and got the job done. We set some relay records, Big 12 records, individual records… and took some Texas records off the board, which is really the direction we want to go.”
Not surprisingly, the Longhorns swept the individual awards. Junior All-America Madisyn Cox was named Swimmer of the Meet, Meghan Houston was named Diver of the Meet and Joana Evans earned Newcomer of the Meet honors. Capitano and diving coach Matt Scoggin were named Coach of the Meet and Diving Coach of the Meet, respectively.
Cox won the 200 breaststroke for the third time in as many Big 12 Championship meets, touching the wall first in 2:09.37. Freshman Olivia Anderson (2:11.01) finished second, while junior Jordan Surhoff (2:14.80) placed third.
Junior All-America Tasija Karosas won her third consecutive title in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:51.21, finishing ahead of teammates Quinn Carrozza (1:54.32) and Rebecca Baxley (1:58.13).
"I was happy with my swim this morning, but I knew I wanted to be a little bit faster," Karosas said. "But I kind of just went into it and told myself to enjoy the moment and enjoy the race, because this is what I train for every day."
Sophomore All-America Rebecca Millard defended her Big 12 title in the 100 freestyle, winning the event in 47.88. Sophomore Mimi Schneider (49.30) placed second.
"Honestly, I wasn't coming into the meet hoping to break 48 (seconds)," Millard said. "I was just coming in trying to go under my best time, so I'm really pleasantly surprised by these two swims today."
Evans continued her strong showing in her first Big 12 Championship, winning her second event, the 1,650-yard freestyle, in 16:13.39.
Texas swept the platform diving event. Senior Kristina Hoffman won the event with 271.45 points, beating out teammates Brooke Pospichal (261.00) and Sofia Rauzi (255.55).
Capitani said the Longhorns’ performances were so strong that there was little question about how the meet would turn out.
“Madisyn was spot-on,” she said. “A lot of our kids were just rock-solid. I think Madisyn was in there, Tasija (Karosas), Rebecca Millard, Olivia (Anderson) … I mean, we have a bunch of kids, and I'm probably not naming them all, that really got up and every time they got up they just swam well. We didn't even have to worry about it.”