The 2020 Texas Invitational continued on Thursday night from Austin with the Longhorns and the Horned Frogs from TCU competing in the two-team only invite. The swim of the day came from the Texas women in the final event of the night with a 3:26.86 to shoot past Virginia (3:29.16) on the national rankings leaderboard with the team of Julia Cook (51.15), Anna Elendt (57.83), Olivia Bray (50.33) and Kelly Pash (47.55) to break the Texas school record in the process.
That medley relay is faster than any team from last year even with no NCAA championships at the end of the season as NC State led the national rankings last season at 3:27.22.
Longhorn junior Drew Kibler also swam an impressive 500 free with a 4:09.18 as he had already been as quick as a 4:08 earlier this season, while freshman Coby Carrozza (4:14.31) finished in runner-up spot.
Texas’ Daniel Krueger moved to second in the national rankings with a 19.14 to sit just behind Cal’s Ryan Hoffer (18.97) while he improved his own season best of 19.16. Senior Alvin Jiang (19.51) finished in second while freshman Carson Foster won the 200 IM at 1:41.98 ahead of sophomore Jake Foster (1:42.59), which put them fifth and sixth respectively in the nation.
The Longhorn men closed the night with the nation leading time in the medley relay with a 3:04.64 with the team of Chris Staka (46.13), Charlie Scheinfeld (51.92), Jiang (44.66) and Krueger (41.93), pulling past Georgia Tech (3:05.89) in the national rankings. Texas is notably without sophomore breaststroker Caspar Corbeau, who went home to Europe on holiday.
Individually, Evie Pfeifer had the best swim on the women’s side with a 4:35.73 in the 500 free to put her second nationally behind Virginia’s Paige Madden (4:33.09) while Mary Smutny came in second at 4:48.23.
Sophomore Kelly Pash won the 200 IM (1:55.40) which put her sixth in the nation while freshman Olivia Bray won the 50 free at 22.25 for eighth among Division I swimmers that have competed thus far this season.
