Performance of the Week: Texas Swimming’s 100 Butterfly Six-Shooters

100 butterfly finalists six from Texas
Photo Courtesy: Texas Athletics

Eddie Reese begins each of his Texas swimming workouts with a kicking set of some sort for every athlete on his team. So, perhaps it should not come as a surprise that his Longhorns made history in the 100 butterfly last week at the men’s NCAA Division I championships with six swimmers in the championship final.

It started in the second of six heats with John Murray and his 45.89 that was looking like a sure bet to get a second swim. But when no one responded to Murray’s time in heat three, people began to think Murray might get into finals. Two heats later, Will Glass trumped Murray with a 45.40 to make Texas look very good in the event. And the established butterfly stars on the Texas squads had yet to swim!

In the fifth heat, Joseph Schooling and Tripp Cooper kept the momentum going with times of 45.01 and 45.33. Add in a 45.60 from North Carolina’s Sam Lewis in that heat, and Texas had five of the top six times going into the final prelim heat.

It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Jack Conger would make it into the final, but many eyes in the Texas contingent were focused on Matt Ellis in lane eight. The running list of qualifiers on the scoreboard indicated that a 46.24 was eighth place going into the final heat. Ellis came into the meet with a seed time of 46.23. All he had to do was match his seed time, and something special was going to happen.

With the swims coming up fast and furious, no one really thought much about the fact that, as heat six was swimming, a watershed moment in swimming history was on the horizon. Conger won the heat with a 45.17 and Ellis was third with a 45.92 behind a 45.82 from Ohio State’s Matt McHugh. The official results displayed on the scoreboard, and the Texas crew on deck and in the stands erupted. Six swimmers in the championship final!

Never before in NCAA history has a school put six athletes in one championship final. The most any school had previously mustered was four on multiple occasions by Michigan, Auburn and Southern California. Reese’s training strategy had worked, and the proof was irrefutable in the final when Texas went 1-2-3-4-6-8 for 92 points.

It should be noted that Texas almost made it a clean scoring sweep for its athletes in the 100 fly. Brett Ringgold nearly made it into the consolation final, placing 19th with a major lifetime best.

Congratulations to the Texas “Six-Shooters” on earning the Performance of the Week!

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Mark Onstott
Mark Onstott
8 years ago

This happened at the University of Iowa, the birthplace of the butterfly.

Dunc1952
Dunc1952
8 years ago

And in a week with a 1:39.38 200 IM.

Amazing job, Longhorns.

John smith
John smith
8 years ago

…. and Texas has even one more sub 46 flyer that didn’t even swim it…… 🙂

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