Texas Longhorns Produce Series of Fast Times to Cap Hall of Fame Invite; Sam Pomajevich Goes 1:39.19 in 200 Fly
Come March, the University of Texas men will chase a 15th NCAA championship, another showdown with Cal-Berkeley anticipated. Nearly four months out, the Longhorns are looking sharp, the evidence provided over the past four days at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational.
As the midseason meet wrapped up on Saturday night, several Texas standouts turned in strong performances, led by senior Sam Pomajevich, freshman Carson Foster and junior Daniel Krueger. Pomajevich was superb in the last individual event of the competition, as he managed a personal best of 1:39.19 in the 200-yard butterfly. It was the third time Pomajevich has been sub-1:40 in his career, and bettered his previous best of 1:39.35, produced at last year’s Minnesota Invite.
Already the winner of the 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley, Foster added the 200 backstroke to his victory list, thanks to a time of 1:40.39, the second-fastest of his career. Foster was followed to the wall by teammate Ethan Harder, who posted a time of 1:41.68.
As for Krueger, he engaged in a duel with classmate Drew Kibler in the 100 freestyle, with both men breaking the 42-second barrier. Krueger trailed Kibler by .01 at the midway point but was stronger over the back half and touched the wall in 41.48, with Kibler going 41.92.
Texas had five swimmers go under the 15-minute mark in the 1650 freestyle, led by David Johnston (14:41.46) and Alex Zettle (14:45.56). Ethan Heasley (14:48.10), Parker Neri (14:54.80) and JohnThomas Larson (14:55.18) finished third through fifth. Meanwhile, Jake Foster was the winner of the 200 breaststroke in 1:54.83.
On the women’s side, Anna Elendt turned in the top performance as she hit the NCAA “A” qualifying standard in the 200 breaststroke with a mark of 2:06.04. Elendt was joined as an automatic NCAA qualifier by the duo of Olivia Bray (1:52.85) and Kelly Pash (1:53.18) in the 200 butterfly.
Julia Cook topped the field in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:52.40 and Kyla Leibel went 49.27 to win the 100 freestyle. Pash, Leibel, Bridget Semenuk and Grace Cooper won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:15.36.
Amazing time! Meanwhile, in CT ALL high school and youth sports are on hold until mid January….