Silver Linings For Second-Place Texas
Despite entering the NCAA Championships as four-time defending champions and competing in their home pool, the Texas Longhorns never had a realistic chance of challenging Cal for this year’s title—not with their team thinned out after graduating four individual NCAA champions and plenty more key contributors within the past two seasons.
Texas opened the meet strong, capturing first in the 800 free relay with the fastest time in history (6:05.08), followed by another win in the meet’s first individual event, when senior Townley Haas captured his third NCAA title in the 500 free. In that race, Haas went out at breathtaking pace with a halfway split of 2:00.49 that was nearly three seconds under the 4:07.25 American-record pace, only to fall well off that pace down the stretch, settling for an NCAA and meet record of 4:08.19.
One day later, in an attempt to capture his fourth straight title in the 200 free, Haas looked gassed, and he ended up settling for fourth, his time of 1:31.80 more than two seconds slower than his fourth, his time of 1:31.80 more than two seconds slower than his personal best.
Over the course of the meet, the Longhorns showed holes, particularly in butterfly and breaststroke, and as Texas struggled, Cal was thriving, with an A-finalist in every single event and multiple A-finalists in eight out of 13 individual races. Heading into the final day, Cal led Texas by 43 points.
The Bears ended up nearly doubling that point margin before meet’s end, but two massive efforts on the final night gave Texas swimmers reason to walk away with their heads held high, beginning when senior John Shebat captured his first NCAA title in the 200 back.
A few minutes after the 200 back, Texas coach Eddie Reese informed Shebat that he was going to swim on the Longhorns’ 400 free relay to finish out the meet.
To read more about the Texas Longhorn’s efforts at the NCAA D1 Champs,
check out the May 2019 issue of Swimming World Magazine, available now!
[PHOTO CREDIT: PETER H. BICK]
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FEATURES
016 NO LEDECKY…NO MANUEL… NO PROBLEM
by Dan D’Addona, David Rieder and Andy Ross
Relying on a younger team—with 10 underclass-men—Stanford still won its third straight women’s NCAA Division I swimming and diving team title. It’s just that this year’s margin of victory was much closer than the previous two.
WOMEN’S NCAA DIVISION I MINI-FEATURES:
018 BROOKE FORDE: MAKING THE EXTRA EFFORT
019 BEATA NELSON: UN-BEATA-BLE NELSON
021 ABBEY WEITZEIL/CAL BEARS: THE OTHER CHAMPIONS
022 LILLY KING: LILLY’S LEGACY
024 WOMEN’S NCAA DIVISION I PHOTO GALLERY
photos by Peter H. Bick
026 THE COMPLETE PACKAGE
by Dan D’Addona and David Rieder
The depth of Cal’s Golden Bears was on full display at this year’s men’s NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, proving they were the best team in the nation.
MEN’S NCAA DIVISION I MINI-FEATURES:
028 DANIEL CARR: SECOND CHANCE PAYS OFF
029 SILVER LININGS FOR SECOND-PLACE TEXAS
031 DEAN FARRIS: DEAN OF THE POOL
032 MEN’S NCAA DIVISION I PHOTO GALLERY
photos by Peter H. Bick
034 STILL NO. 1
by Andy Ross, Cathleen Pruden, Olivia Wile and Grace Nordquist
All of the schools that won college national championships last year for NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA and NJCAA repeated as champions in 2019. Their winning streaks range from two to 45!
038 ’59 MICHIGAN TEAM STILL “THE GREATEST OF ’EM ALL”
by Bruce Wigo
For overall strength as well as balance in all the strokes, distances and diving, no team in history has ever dominated the men’s NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships like the 1959 University of Michigan Wolverines.
COACHING
010 LESSONS WITH THE LEGENDS: FRANK KEEFE
by Michael J. Stott
014 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: CONDITIONING TO OPTIMIZE TECHNIQUE (Part 2)
by Rod Havriluk
As explained in Part 1, there are three types of sets that are critical to emphasizing technique: skill sets, transition sets and test sets. Part 2 presents strategies to integrate these three sets into a conditioning program.
041 SPECIAL SETS: TRAINING FOR THE 200 FLY
by Michael J. Stott
Coach Sean Farrell’s recent success with distance flyers at the Cheshire YMCA/Sea Dog Swim Club in Connecticut results from having good athletes, a defined sense of how to train them and a philosophy focused on training the whole athlete.
043 Q&A WITH COACH DAN MASCOLO
by Michael J. Stott
044 HOW THEY TRAIN JULIA STEVENS
by Michael J. Stott
JUNIOR SWIMMER
046 UP & COMERS: MORGAN RAZEWSKI
by Taylor Brien
COLUMNS
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT
009 BEYOND THE YARDS
013 OFFICIAL WORD
040 DID YOU KNOW? ISHOF’S FIRST HONOREES: A “SPORTS SPECTACULAR”
047 GUTTER TALK
048 PARTING SHOT
Congratulations