Meet of the Week Recap: No. 1 Texas Men Down No. 3 Auburn, 130-113

AUBURN, Alabama, January 11. IN the first of many epic dual-meet battles that will take place this weekend, the top-ranked Texas men took down No. 3 Auburn at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn, 130-113.

"In a lot of ways, this meet was about our ability to finish races, and both teams did a nice job there," said UT coach Eddie Reese, who coached at Auburn from 1973-78. "One thing we talk about when we come to swim Auburn is to get ready to face the toughest team you'll face all year. They (Auburn) won't give an inch, they didn't and they still won't."

The win snapped Auburn's six-year dual-meet unbeaten streak that had stretched over the past 44 meets back to its last loss on Jan. 11, 2001, which ironically happened against Texas.

"My theory is that the longer a streak goes, the longer it goes to finishing," Reese joked. "We were glad to get the win, but this was not a life-and-death situation. We worked on some things, like the pairings for the great battles Auburn gives you down the stretch. This was a step to find out where we were. I was surprised we weren't a lot faster in some races, though I thought both teams would be faster. It's clear that both teams are aiming toward the NCAA Championships."

Overall, the day witnessed some fast mid-season times as 12 provisional qualifying marks went up on the board.

A trio of Longhorns led Texas with double individual event titles as Michael Klueh swept the distance freestyle events, Matthew McGinnis won the 100 and 200 free, and Rick Berens took home the 200 fly and IM crowns.

Diver Steven Segerlin paced Auburn by sweeping the diving events as Auburn wound up winning just four of the 13 events.

"It was pretty much what we anticipated," said Auburn head coach David Marsh. "We knew it was going to be a tough meet for us. Texas just has a lot of front-line guys and they swam well. We swam pretty well. We needed a few more breaks and we needed a few more guys to step up. But, I think we learned a lot, and this time of the season that's what you're looking for."

400-yard medley relay
Texas jumped out to an early 11-6 lead with a relay win in the medley. The Longhorn squad of Thomas Sacco, Tyler O'Halloran, Rick Berens and Garrett Weber-Gale completed a B-cut time of 3:15.36 for the win. Auburn took 2-3 as the team of Joey Schneider, Sean Osborne, Alexei Puninski and Jakob Andkjaer clocked a B-cut time of 3:16.70 for second. Meanwhile, Bryan Lundquist, David Maras, John Scott and Scott Goodrich touched third in 3:17.93, nearly posting a B-cut of their own when they came .22 seconds short.

Sacco clocked the top backstroke leg with a B-cut leadoff of 48.78, while Matthew Lowe posted the quickest breaststroke leg of the race with a split of 54.77. Berens smoked the fly with a 46.96, while Andkjaer anchored his relay with a 43.88 split for the top freestyle leg.

1000-yard freestyle
Texas stretched its lead to 21-15 when Michael Klueh held off Andrew Callahan for first with a time of 9:11.37. Callahan finished second by clocking a 9:13.14, while his teammate Jeff Smith touched a distant third in 9:23.42.

Klueh never trailed while holding Callahan in his hip pocket through the first 900 yards before he kicked it into gear with 26.50 and 26.07 splits through his final 100 yards.

200-yard freestyle
The Longhorns took a 36-19 advantage with a 1-2 finish in the 200 free. Both Matthew McGinnis and David Walters posted B-cut times of 1:35.64 and 1:37.89 en route to ownership of the event. Auburn's Tyler McGill rounded out the top three in 1:39.35.

McGinnis nearly led wire-to-wire, but had to overtake Walters' quick first 50 split of 22.61. After that, McGinnis never trailed.

50-yard freestyle
Auburn cut the gap to 44-30 with a win in the sprint free. Alexei Puninski held off a pair of Longhorns in the splash-and-dash with a time of 20.27. Garrett Weber-Gale placed second in 20.53, while Tyler O'Halloran finished third in 20.61.

200-yard IM
Texas countered in the 200 IM to take a 57-36 lead. Rick Berens and Caleb McDermott went 1-2 with Berens clocking a B-cut first-place time of 1:49.10 and McDermott touching in 1:50.16 for second. Jon Roberts took third for Auburn in 1:51.41.

Berens' victory was never in doubt as he led by nearly a half-second at the 100-yard mark and increased that lead to one second in the back half.

One-meter diving
Auburn munched on some major diving points to chop the lead down to 61-51 with a 1-2-4 effort. Steven Segerlin owned the event with a top-tally of 354.15, while Dan Mazzaferro finished second with 303.22 points. Scott Morgan earned fourth-place points for Auburn with a 291.82 tally, while Texas' Mike Wong took third with 294.60 points.

200-yard butterfly
Rick Berens pocketed his second individual title in a row with a B-cut time of 1:46.42 to help Texas push its lead to 72-59. Auburn went 2-3 with Tyler McGill clocking a second-place 1:48.08 and Logan Madson garnering third in 1:48.36.

Berens used a tremendous last 50 split of 27.29 to grab the win, coming back from almost a half-second down at the 150-yard mark.

100-yard freestyle
Texas moved its advantage to 84-66 with a win in the 100 free as Matthew McGinnis led a trio of B-cut qualifiers with a time of 43.91. Auburn's Jakob Andkjaer (43.94) and Bryan Lundquist (44.39) also notched provisional times for second and third, respectively.

McGinnis back-halfed his race as he trailed Andkjaer, 20.88 – 21.29, at the turn. He dropped a 22.62 last 50 against Andkjaer's 23.06 to edge the Tiger out for the title.

200-yard backstroke
Texas took a commanding 98-71 lead in the 200 back with a 1-3 effort. Caleb McDermott won the race going away with a B-cut time of 1:46.47, while teammate Thomas Sacco placed third in 1:48.08. Auburn's Joey Schneider split the difference with a second-place time of 1:47.62.

500-yard freestyle
The Longhorns kept rolling with their momentum to a 111-77 advantage after Michael Klueh swept the distance events with a first-place time of 4:29.24. He edged teammate David Walters, who grabbed second in 4:29.42, after the two were in nearly a dead heat at the 450-yard mark with Walters holding onto a scant .01 second lead. Auburn's Will Dove comprised the rest of the top three with a time of 4:31.51.

Three-meter diving
Auburn took a serious chunk out of the lead to pull within 114-93 in the second diving break with a top-four sweep. Steven Segerlin dominated with 380.62 points, while Kelly Marx took second with 350.02 points. Dan Mazzaferro finished third with 342.07 points, while Scott Morgan placed fourth with 333.74 points.

200-yard breaststroke
The Longhorns responded to the diving hit to push their lead to 124-102 in the 200 breast. Matthew Lowe nipped Auburn's Sean Osborne, 2:01.24 – 2:01.92, for the win, while Jon Roberts picked up third for the Tigers in 2:03.66.

After trailing by nearly a half-second at the 100-yard mark, Lowe kicked it into gear with a 1:03.33 last 100 to take the win.

400-yard freestyle relay
Auburn did not take the 130-113 loss without a fight when Alexei Puninski, Scott Goodrich, Jakob Andkjaer and Bryan Lundquist won the 400 free in a B-cut time of 2:56.61. Texas took the 2-3 spots as Matthew McGinnis, David Walters, Jeremy Harris and Garrett Weber-Gale posted a B-cut second-place time of 2:57.31, while Christopher Seitz, Caleb McDermott, Thomas Sacco and Daniel Rohleder finished third in 3:02.29.

Puninski (44.47) and McGinnis (44.09) both posted B-cut leadoff times.

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