Clark Smith Clocks Monster 500 At Texas Invite
An American record nearly fell on night two of the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational.
Texas’ Clark Smith went a 4:08.82 in the 500-yard freestyle, less than a half-second off of Peter Vanderkaay’s American record of 4:08.54. Smith’s time was easily under the NCAA ‘A’ time standard for the 500-yard freestyle.
The Longhorn women won the 200-yard freestyle relay to start off the evening. The team of Mimi Schneider, Rebecca Millard, Brooke Hansen and Sam Sutton went a time of 1:28.94, beating Arizona by one-hundredth of a second. Texas, Arizona and Southern California were all under the ‘A’ time standard.
Texas did not fare as well in the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay race. The Longhorn’s top relay team was disqualified. Arizona won the race in 1:18.96. The Wildcat team consisted of Chad Idensohn, Chatham Dobbs, Renny Richmond and JP Beach.
In the women’s 500-yard freestyle, Southern California’s Chelsea Chenault picked up the win with a time of 4:39.94. She finished over a half second ahead of Arizona’s Bonnie Brandon.
Smith won the men’s race by over five seconds. He will have a good opportunity to break Vanderkaay’s record at the NCAA Championships.
Texas’ Madisyn Cox earned an ‘A’ time standard in the 200-yard individual medley. Cox went a 1:54.29, over two seconds ahead of Southern California’s Kristen Vose.
In the men’s 200-yard individual medley, Ryan Harty brought home the title for Texas. Harty touched the wall with a time of 1:43.26, just ahead of Brigham Young’s Jake Taylor.
Chase Kinney brought home the women’s 50-yard freestyle title for Wisconsin. With a time of 22.23, Kinney finished just ahead of Arizona’s Katrina Konopka.
Texas’ Brett Ringgold brought home the 50-yard freestyle title. Ringgold touched in 19.38, two-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Matt Ellis.
The night concluded with the men’s and women’s 400-yard medley relay. Southern California won the women’s race with an ‘A’ time standard of 3:30.62. The team consisted of backstroker Hannah Weiss, breaststroker Kristen Vose, butterflier Lucy Worrall and freestyler Anika Apostalon.
Arizona brought home the men’s title. The Wildcat team consisted of backstroker Chatham Dobbs, breaststroker Blair Bish, butterflier Mathias Oh and freestyler Renny Richmond.
Texas’ Will Licon, runner-up to David Nolan in the 20 IM @. NCAAs last March ( and 400 IM champ,over you know who’s!) was second- fastest qualifier in shorter medley tonite ( 1: 44.85) but didn’t swim finals. Anyone know y?
Smith’s 500 a Big 12 record.
Way to go Clark!!!! Can’t wait to see you crush that time! So exciting to hear all your accomplishments!
Way to go Clark!!
Amazing!
So exciting!