Georgia, Texas Put On Show In Austin

AUSTIN, Texas, January 11. SATURDAY’S highly anticipated matchup between the University of Georgia and University of Texas did not disappoint, as the Lady Bulldogs and Longhorn men came out on top in a tightly contested meet on both the women’s and men’s sides.

Georgia’s Shannon Vreeland, Brittany MacLean, Laura Ryan and Melanie Margalis all won two events apiece on the women’s side, as did Texas’ Lily Moldenhauer. Georgia’s Ty Stewart had two individual victories in the Bulldogs’ loss, while the Texas men got two wins each from diver Michael Hixon and swimmers Will Licon and
John Murray.

Texas Women’s Press Release

Senior swimmer Lily Moldenhauer registered two of Texas’ six victories on the day as the eighth-ranked Longhorns suffered a 157.5-142.5 loss to defending NCAA champion Georgia Saturday afternoon at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

Texas collected its first win of the day in the 200-yard medley relay, where Moldenhauer, junior Gretchen Jaques, freshman Brynne Wong and senior Ellen Lobb finished in 1:40.01. Georgia led at the 100-yard mark before Wong before closed the gap and pulled Texas slightly ahead at 150 yards. Lobb split 22.29 seconds on the relay’s freestyle leg to give UT the win by over four-tenths of a second.

UGA won the 1,650 freestyle and the 200 freestyle, but the Horns took second, third and fourth in the 200 freestyle to keep the score close. Senior Alex Hooper took second in 1:48.55 while senior Sam Tucker placed third in 1:48.81. Moldenhauer teamed with freshman Tasija Karosas to lead a one-two Texas showing in the 100 backstroke, where they topped UGA’s Olivia Smoliga, the world champion in the event last summer. Moldenhauer took the win in 53.32 and Karosas took second in 54.37.

Lobb rode the wave from her 200 medley relay anchor swim and won the 50 freestyle in 22.75. Wong tied for third at 23.39. UGA’s Laura Ryan narrowly won the one and three-meter diving events, but Texas picked up significant points from Maren Taylor, Emma Ivory-Ganja and Meghan Houston on both boards. Taylor took second in the one-meter event with 316.65 points, less than three points behind Ryan. Taylor added a second-place total of 371.10 points on the three-meter board.

Karosas registered an impressive swim in the 200 backstroke against UGA’s Melanie Margalis and came away with the win in 1:55.84. Margalis narrowed the gap coming off of the final wall but Karosas held on for the win. UT added second and third-place finishes from Jaques and freshman Madisyn Cox in the 200 breaststroke. Jaques took a close second behind UGA’s Annie Zhu in 2:14.00.

Moldenhauer completed her impressive double with a winning mark of 54.26 in the 100 butterfly. Wong added a third-place time of 54.73. Georgia clinched the meet victory by way of its first, third and fifth-place finishes in the 200 IM, where Margalis prevailed in 1:57.67. UT’s Cox took second in 2:00.24. Texas’ Hooper, Karosas, Moldenhauer and Tucker finished off the meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:20.39

Texas hosts TCU for its Senior Day meet on Friday, Jan. 24.

Texas Men’s Press Release

No. 2 Texas (7-1) won 11 events and emerged with a 169-126 victory over No. 10 Georgia Saturday afternoon at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Freshman diver Michael Hixon swept the diving events and notched a personal best on the three-meter board. UT collected two wins apiece from sophomore swimmer John Murray and freshman Will Licon.

Georgia opened the meet with wins in the 1,650-yard freestyle and the 200 medley relay, the latter coming on a Texas disqualification, but junior Clay Youngquist provided Texas its first win of the day in the 200 freestyle at 1:36.54. Freshman Clark Smith placed second at 1:39.36.

Licon posted the first of his two wins on the day in the 100 breaststroke, where he edged UGA’s Nic Fink and prevailed in 55.15, good for a NCAA “B” cut. UT’s Imri Ganiel, a 2012 London Olympian for his native Israel, took third in 56.53. Sophomore John Martens took the lead from UGA’s Tynan Stewart at the 150-yard mark and took the win in the 200 butterfly at 1:46.42, also a NCAA “B” cut.

Murray posted an impressive double and won the back-to-back 50 and 100 freestyle events. The San Antonio native claimed the 50 freestyle in 20.28, and after an intermission, Murray captured the 100 freestyle in 44.91. Hixon opened the diving session with a win on the one-meter board, where he led a quartet of Longhorns atop the leaderboard with 415.95 points. Sophomore Cory Bowersox, an All-American on one-meter last season, took second with 400.58 points. Freshman Mark Anderson added three points for the Horns with his third-place total of 389.70 points.

Licon went head-to-head with UGA’s Fink again in the 200 breaststroke and came away with the win in 1:58.96. Junior Matt Korman, last year’s Big 12 champion in the event, took third in 2:03.35.

Perhaps the premier race of the day was the 500 freestyle that featured a slew of Bulldogs All-Americans from UGA’s tradition-rich distance program. UT sophomore Sam Lewis trailed Georgia’s Will Freeman at the 450-yard mark but out-split Freeman by four-tenths of a second over the final 50 yards to take the win in 4:27.28. Freeman took a close second in 4:27.41.

Junior Tripp Cooper led a one-two Texas finish in the 100 butterfly and claimed the win in 48.21. Sophomore Matt Ellis rounded out the top-two in 48.89.

With the meet victory in hand, Texas declined its points allotment in the 400 freestyle relay, but the Longhorns were victorious in 2:59.92. Hixon wrapped the meet with a win and a personal best of 496.73 points in the three-meter event. Chandler logged an impressive total of 469.43 points for second place.

Georgia Press Release

The No. 4-ranked Georgia women’s swimming and diving team earned an impressive road win on Saturday, dispatching No. 8 Texas at the Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

The Lady Bulldogs (8-0-1) posted a 157.5-142.5 victory over Texas (5-3). The No. 10 Georgia men (7-2) dropped a 169-126 decision to the No. 2 Longhorns (4-1).

Shannon Vreeland, Brittany MacLean, Melanie Margalis and Laura Ryan were double winners for the Lady Bulldogs on Saturday.

Vreeland won the 100 freestyle in 49.90 and the 200 freestyle in 1:47.94. MacLean reached the wall first in the 500 freestyle (4:47.31) and the 1,650 freestyle (16:23.61). Margalis claimed the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.81 and the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:57.67. Ryan swept the springboard diving, registering 319.58 points on 1-meter and 375.08 points on 3-meter.

The Lady Bulldogs also got a win in the 200 butterfly from Hali Flickinger (2:00.02) and in the 200 breaststroke from Annie Zhu (2:13.31).

For the Bulldogs, Ty Stewart posted a pair of victories. He went 1:46.15 in the 200 backstroke and 1:48.35 in the 200 individual medley.

Andrew Gemmell won the 1,650 freestyle in 15:22.01 and Taylor Dale claimed the 100 backstroke in 48.34.

The 200 medley relay of Dale, Nicolas Fink, Pace Clark and Michael Trice stopped the clock with a first-place time of 1:28.79.

Georgia’s teams will be idle until Jan. 25 when they entertain Tennessee.

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