Liftoff – A Conversation With Texas’ Eddie Reese

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold/Aringo

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By Michael J. Stott

As we roll into Day two of the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships, thoughts wander back to Texas coach Eddie Reese’s musings on the first night of competition and the events to come.

Swimming World: Congratulations on the victory in the 800 free relay tonight.

Coach Reese: It was all coaching.

SW: Given that fact . . .

ECR: I say that without a smile . . .

SW: Given the splits of swimmers two (Townley Haas, 1:30.52) and three (Clark Smith, 1:33.28) and given the fact that they are entered in the 500 free is that a harbinger of things to come?

ECR: The big question is how to recover from that race because everybody that is in the 500 pretty much swam that race. They all do it at conference. We noticed that the girls had a little bit of trouble with that coming back after the relay. Some of the good ones didn’t swim well in the prelims so we know that to win the meet you’ve got to have a good prelims session every time and a good finals session. As Jack Bauerle said, “OK, now comes three hard days.” This was an easy day to start the meet. And now all the doubles and all that kind of stuff gets real hard.

SW: You talked about the girls, now we are talking about Texas men. There is a difference.

ECR: Got it.

SW: What can we expect from the Longhorns the next three days. In talking to coaches on deck, they feel you are the prohibitive favorite.

ECR: You know, we’ve never been one.

SW: How’s it feel?

ECR: Well, I don’t pay attention to those guys. None of it matters what anybody thinks. A gun goes off, they have to race. And that’s all it is. I never started coaching to win NCAAs or to be the Olympic coach. I just enjoy people going fast and that’s what we are here to do.

SW: What day sets up best for the Longhorns?

ECR: Oh man, we are real good tomorrow (Thursday); real good Saturday. We’re good Friday. Friday may be a good day for us. All we can control is what we are going to do. We can’t control anybody else. And so far on the 800 free relays if you look at all the 1:32’s in that relay (10 among the top 16 teams, three 1:31’s), they made 33’s and 34’s slow. There were more 1:32’s out there than any of us could have dreamed.

SW: Did you like the move of the relay?

ECR: Without a doubt; I loved it. Most of the records have been set at conference because it is hard and here we are in gold at 9:30 at night and it’s a great gift to the athletes.

SW: Three teams under the U.S. Open record. You talk about a lot of 1:32’s and 1:33’s, I saw a 1:30.52 slip in there from Townley Haas. Where did that come from?

ECR: It gives me chills. It comes from chasing Clark Smith in every workout. He is relentless. He never beats him but he is after him. Every time, it doesn’t matter if he is getting beat, it’s real hard if someone is repeating better than you most of the time to stay in that game. He just stays in it. We felt he (Townley) would be our best split, but we didn’t know it would be that fast. And Jack’s (Conger – 1:31.89) was real good.

SW: What was the thought process choosing the order of the swimmers?

ECR: The best times we had were Jack 33 something, Townley 33 low, Clark 33.3, Joseph (Schooling) at 34 on a relay. All of them are tough. Joe will not let people pass him no matter what. And we wanted Jack to go first; we figured nobody could stay with Jack and Townley. No team could stay with the two of them back to back and so we’d have a lead. Clark overswam his race a little bit. He was out a little fast which is normal. If he’d been even he’d been even out a little faster. And that’s not what we wanted. We wanted him to go in where he’d be a little bit relaxed.

SW: Does clear water make a difference for Clark – or at 6’9” does it not matter?

ECR: It makes a difference for everybody. Most world records are set by people who are out in front. They haven’t had to go face-to-face with anybody. I swim better when I’m ahead. I can’t remember back that far, but I know everybody swims better when they are out front. (ed. note: this from a man who finished tied for 10^th with Richard Quick in the 400 IM at NCAAs).

SW: Is the plan for Schooling to swim five relays?

ECR: Yes.

Day two is here – let the games begin.

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