Carson Foster Takes Two More Wins as Texas Men Top SMU Classic; USC Women Finish First
After posting three swift performances Friday, including a 3:38.79 in the 400 IM, Texas junior Carson Foster continued his run of strong swimming at the SMU Classic in Dallas with two more individual wins Saturday as his Longhorns earned the overall team win. Foster, the silver medalist in the 200 and 400-meter IM at this year’s World Championships, took the 200 backstroke in 1:40.90 and then won the 200 IM in 1:42.68. Foster’s backstroke performance was almost two seconds ahead of Texas A&M’s Ethan Gogulski (1:42.84), while Missouri’s Clement Secchi was third (1:43.57). In the IM, however, Foster got a challenge from Texas A&M freshman Baylor Nelson, who swam a mark of 1:43.32, with Missouri’s Ben Patton finishing third (1:46.53).
Additionally, Luke Hobson got a win for Texas in the 500 freestyle. He swam a mark of 4:15.88 to dominate the event in which he placed third at last year’s NCAA Championships. Missouri’s Jack Dahlgren (4:23.15) and Texas A&M’s Anze Fers Erzen (4:24.34) placed second and third, respectively. Texas fifth-year swimmer Danny Krueger pulled away from Dahlgren to win the 100 free in 42.69, with Dahlgren holding off Michigan’s Bence Szabados for second, 43.39 to 43.41. Texas’ Noah Duperre won 3-meter diving with a score of 354.45, beating out Michigan’s Camero Gammage (337.35) and SMU’s Peter Smithson (322.50).
A big day for the Texas A&M men saw the Aggies win both relays. The Aggies’ Gogulski, Andres Puente Bustamandres, Connor Foote and Kaloyan Bratanov won the 200 medley relay in 1:25.45 over Missouri (1:26.00) and Texas (1:26.02), and later on, the team of Foote, Bratanov, Gogulski and Nelson held off Missouri, 1:18.66 to 1:18.77, to take the win, with Texas (1:19.24) coming in third. Meanwhile, Puente Bustamandres scorted an upset win over Texas’ Caspar Corbeau in the 200 breaststroke, 1:54.68 to 1:55.26.
The only non-Longhorn or Aggie to win a men’s event was Missouri’s Clement Secchi, who crushed a time of 1:43.98 to dominate the 200 butterfly, with Michigan’s Gal Cohen Groumi (1:45.46) and Texas’ Cole Crane (1:46.30) rounding out the top three.
At the end of the meet, the Longhorn men had 348 points, while the Aggies edged out Missouri for second place, 306 to 298. Rounding out the field at the six-team event were Michigan (280), Louisville (220) and host SMU (196).
On the women’s side, meanwhile, it was the University of Southern California that overtook Louisville and held off Michigan on day two to earn a team title. The Trojans scored 325 points to edge out the Wolverines (311) and Cardinals (304), with Missouri (255), Miami (223) and SMU (203) also competing. USC started out Saturday’s action by holding off Louisville in dramatic fashion to win the 200 medley relay. The team of Hanna Henderson, Kaitlyn Dobler, Anicka Delgado and Elise Garcia combined for a time of 1:37.78, just six hundredths ahead of the charging Cardinals, but Louisville was disqualified for a false start, leaving Michigan (1:38.43) and Miami (1:39.81) in second and third place, respectively.
USC kept the momentum going with two quick individual event wins. Marlene Kahler pulled away from Michigan’s Kathryn Ackerman to win the 500 free. Kahler touched in 4:46.14, with Ackerman second (4:47.66) and Missouri’s Molly Gowans third (4:47.79). Next, Isabelle Odgers used an enormous closing burst to overtake Michigan’s Letitia Sim. Odgers trailed Sim by almost two seconds at the halfway point and by 1.34 seconds with two lengths remaining, but her 33.48 split got her to the wall in 2:10.52, nine hundredth ahead of Sim. Miami’s Tara Vovk took third in 2:12.26.
Michigan made its run in the final two individual races, but it was too little too late. The Wolverines’ Katie Crom overtook fading Louisville Cardinal Tristen Ulett to win the 200 fly, 1:56.79 to 1:57.01. USC’s Justina Kozan took third (1:59.14). Then, Sim turned the tables over Odgers in the 200 IM, winning 1:58.48 to 1:58.64. Vovk was third (1:59.35), while Missouri’s Meredith Rees, the clear leader through 100 meters, faded badly and ended up off the pace.
Louisville’s Paige Hetrick won the 200 back in 1:55.63, swimming more than a second quicker than any other swimmers on the last 50 to pull ahead. Missouri’s Fernanda Goeij took second (1:56.75), while Michigan’s Casey Chung was third (1:56.94). Also for Louisville, Gabi Albiero won her third race of the meet after Friday’s wins in the 50 free and 100 fly. She touched in 48.08 in the 100 free to easily beat Michigan’s Lindsay Flynn (48.82) and USC’s Delgado (49.35). Albiero also split 21.59 anchoring Louisville’s 200 medley relay that nearly caught Michigan but ended up disqualified for reason unrelated to Albiero.
It was not enough to finish any higher than third, Louisville ended the meet with a nail-biter win in the 200 free relay. Albiero, Chritina Regenauer, Ulett and Hetrick won the event in 1:29.71, just 0.11 ahead of USC. The Trojans had a sparkling anchor from 100 breast NCAA champion Kaitlyn Dobler, who split 21.96. Michigan ended up third in 1:30.87.