Texas/Auburn Men

AUBURN, Alabama, January 13. THE No. 2 Texas Men's Swimming and Diving team dominated No. 7 Auburn in a dual meet Thursday, 161-131, to improve to 4-1 in dual meets this season.

It was all Longhorns from start to finish as they captured first place in 11 of the first 13 events on the evening before the match was clinched and UT exhibitioned the final three events.

"This was one of the best overall dual meet efforts by our team in a long time, maybe in the last three or four years," said head coach Eddie Reese. "This was a great step for us. We are being led by a great group of seniors and everybody is doing a great job competing."

The night got off to a good start when Cole Cragin, Eric Friedland, Neil Caskey and Jimmy Feigen combined for a time of 1:27.62 to win the 200 medley relay.

In a very fast 1000 freestyle, Jackson Wilcox swam the fastest time in the country so far this season with a 9:01.22 but each of the top three finishers on Thursday would have beaten the previous top mark of 9:04.70 by Georgia's William Freeman. Michael McBroom was second in the race with a time of 9:01.57.

The top three times in the 200 freestyle were all by UT swimmers. Dax Hill won the event with a time of 1:36.73 and was followed by Clay Youngquist and Kyle McNeilis.

Auburn's first win came in the fourth event, the 100 backstroke, but from then on Texas strung together wins in the next five contests.

Eric Friedland won the 100 breaststroke, Neil Caskey took first in the 200 butterfly and Jimmy Feigen was the lone swimmer under 20.00 in the 50 freestyle as the Longhorns held an 87-44 lead heading into the first diving break.

Matt Cooper continued his success in diving as he captured first place ahead of teammate Drew Livingston in the 1-meter event. Cooper scored 397.43 points while Livingston had 348.0 points. After diving the Longhorns continued to pour it on as Feigen won the 100 freestyle with a time of 43.65.

Friedland swept the breaststroke events after his victory in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:00.71. Wilcox earned a sweep in the distance events by clocking a 4:26.84 to beat out McBroom for first place. Texas swimmers finished 1-4 in the event with Jake Ritter coming in third and McNeilis fourth to put Texas in front 148-78 to clinch a Longhorn victory with four remaining events.

Caskey gave Texas its final win of the night as he took the 100 butterfly for his second win of the year in the event.

For the remainder of the meet, Texas switched its swimmers and divers to compete as exhibition for each event. UT was able to continue with stellar performances. Livingston and Cooper had the top two scores in the 3-meter diving competition. Livingston had 426.30 points and Cooper tallied 414.90 points. Austin Surhoff had the second fastest time in the 200 IM and Texas had the second fastest 200 freestyle relay team.

The two teams will swim exhibition races on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. The next dual meet for Texas will be at Arizona on Jan. 28 at 12 noon.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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