Virginia Women, Texas Men Finish Off Dual Meet Victories; Carson Foster Swims 1:42.14 200 Back
After day one of the Virginia-Texas dual meet in Charlottesville, the Texas men were up big while the Cavalier women held a one-point edge over the Longhorns. Texas’ men continued to dominate in Saturday’s action, winning every event on the schedule on the way to a 223-122 triumph, and Virginia’s women pulled the same sweep to pull away and win 201-152.
Even though there ended up being little drama in the team race, the action in the pool was tight throughout as several standouts delivered signature dual meet performances. In particular, Texas sophomore Carson Foster added a win in the 200 backstroke to his Friday wins in the 400 IM and 200 fly. After his 400 IM Friday (3:40.48) that is believed to be the fastest dual meet time ever, Foster swam a 1:42.14 in the 200 back to win by two seconds and break a 16-year-old pool record previously held by swimming legend Ryan Lochte.
Foster’s older brother, Jake, also pulled off some impressive performances. First, he won the 200 breast in 1:55.91, barely holding off Virginia’s Noah Nichols (1:56.05) while fellow Longhorn Caspar Corbeau (1:56.60) was close as well. Then, Jake won the 200 IM in a tight finish over UVA’s Sean Conway. The Longhorn junior trailed by eight tenths at the halfway point but pulled ahead on the back half to come in at 1:45.66, compared to Conway’s 1:45.80.
In the first men’s race of the day, Texas won the 400 medley relay but only after Danny Krueger unleashed a sizzling 41.85 anchor leg to run down Virginia’s Matt Brownstead. Kruger entered the pool three tenths down but ended up pulling ahead and winning 3:09.47 to 3:09.96 (despite Brownstead’s more-than-respectable 42.67 on the way home). Anthony Grimm, Caspar Corbeau and Alvin Jiang also swam on that relay.
Texas’ David Johnston, the winner of the 1000 free Friday, added a victory in the 500 free in 4:22.41, and he led a Texas 1-2-3-4 finish with Coby Carroza, Alex Zettle and Luke Hobson. Krueger won the 100 free in 43.05 with Kibler taking second (43.74), and Jiang edged out UVA’s Konnar Klinksiek to win the 100 fly, 47.71 to 47.89.
The men’s competition wrapped up with another super tight relay finish as the Texas foursome of Krueger, Corbeau, Cameron Auchinachie and Kibler held off Virginia’s Matt King, August Lamb, Justin Grender and Brownstead, 1:18.61 to 1:18.83. Kibler had enough on the anchor leg with his 19.51 split, while Brownstead had the fastest overall split at 19.43.
In the women’s meet, the day’s top performer was Virginia junior Ella Nelson, the runnerup in the 200 breaststroke at last year’s NCAA Championships. Against Texas, Nelson won the 200 breast (2:08.79) and 200 IM (1:57.33). She had to overtake early leader Kelly Pash of Texas in the IM, but Nelson ended up touching 0.13 ahead.
Each of Virginia’s Olympians posted one win. Emma Weyant grabbed her third of the meet in the 500 free, swimming a 4:46.11 to beat out the Texas duo of Evie Pfeifer (4:47.82) and Erica Sullivan (4:48.49). Weyant had previously swept the 400 IM and 1000 free Friday. Alex Walsh took first in the 200 back in a quick 1:53.37, and Kate Douglass won the 100 fly in 51.99. Gretchen Walsh, younger sister of Alex, cruised to a 1.69-second win in the 100 free as she touched in 48.00.
In the women’s 400 medley relay, the Virginia quartet of Gretchen Walsh (50.89), Alexis Wenger (58.17), Douglass (50.93) and Alex Walsh (49.08) recorded an elite time of 3:29.07 to win by almost four seconds. To conclude the meet, the Cavaliers‘ Gretchen Walsh (21.88), Douglass (21.56), Alex Walsh (22.07) and Lexi Cuomo (22.60) dominated the 200 free relay with their final time of 1:28.11.
Results for the meet are available here.