Badgers head to Texas looking to pick up pace
December 03, 2009 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Dec. 3, 2009
MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin men’s and women’s swimming teams will venture to the Lone Star State to compete in the annual Texas Invitational, a three-day contest set to commence on Thursday, Dec. 3.
The Badgers will face top teams from across the country, with both teams looking to improve on last year’s third-place finishes behind host Texas and consistently strong Arizona. Both the Wisconsin men’s and women’s teams will be competing for the first time since Nov. 13 and are anticipating strong showings, as the Texas Invitational has historically produced many of the season’s top performances.
The preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. on each day, with the finals set for 6 p.m.
Men’s Preview
Last year’s meeting in Texas helped add to UW’s record board, with graduate Scott Rice in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events, with current senior Phil Davies clocking a record-breaking 43.50 seconds in the 100-yard free.
Davies’ current season-best mark in the 100-free is 46.14 seconds, a first place finish that helped the Badgers defeat their most recent competition, Big Ten rival Northwestern, 153-144. Davies will need to shave his time down for an NCAA-qualifying mark in the event, set at 44.37 seconds.
Davies is part of the winning 200-medley team from the Northwestern dual, and along with Derrick O’Donnell, Eric Johnson, and Chuck Allison, the team won with a time of 1:32.32.
Wisconsin led for a majority of the meet, with Northwestern slowly creeping from behind to tie the score before the final event, the 400-free relay. Davies, Wes Lagerhausen, Chris Nemeth, and Conner Andrews ultimately clocked a time of 3:02.37 to take the victory and trump the Wildcats.
O’Donnell stole a pair of first place finishes in the 100 (51.31) and 200 backstroke (1:52.22), both his second best marks of the season. The senior has yet qualify for the NCAAs this season, and will need to clock 49.02 in the 100 back and 1:46.60 in the 200 back to secure a place in the spring tournament.
Women’s Preview
The Badgers have set the bar much higher for themselves this season, and have already tallied 26 NCAA championships qualifying times. Last season, UW didn’t record its first NCAA mark until the Texas Invitational.
The Wisconsin women have shown impressive performances across the board this season, with NCAA qualifying marks in six individual events. Maggie Meyer, Monika Stitski, Beckie Thompson and Ashley Wanland own 22 of those marks, with Meyer owning nearly half of them. Of the 26 marks have, 25 have been NCAA consideration times, and Meyer has recorded the only automatic qualifying in the 10 backstroke (53.01) against Northwestern.
Meyer took seventh in the event at last year’s Texas Invitational, finishing in 54.54, a time she has already topped in five of six meets this season.
As a freshman, Wanland made a name for herself in Texas last season, as she took second in the 100 breast and fourth in the 200 breast. Wanland set a new school record in the 100 breast, which remained at 1:00.07 until she swam the event in under one minute at both the Big Ten championships and the NCAAs.
Then-freshman Thompson set a Big Ten record of 22.25 in the 50-free in Texas last year, and she has come dangerously close to this time, swimming the event in 22.94 in a dual meet against Minnesota.
In total, the Texas Invitational saw 18 NCAA championship qualifying times last year from the Badgers, and both the men and women will look to hold their own against the competition this weekend.
