Men's Swimming and Diving first, women second after first day of Texas Invitational
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sophomore diver Matt Bisordi (San Mateo, Calif.) captured the one-meter competition with 329.90 points while senior Daniel DiToro (Scottsdale, Ariz.) swam a lifetime best of 47.04 in the men's 100-yard butterfly - hitting NCAA Automatic qualifying standards en route to a second-place finish - and senior Sarah Wanezek (Brookfield, Wis.) posted NCAA Automatic Qualifying standards in two events - the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly - to lead The University of Texas men's and women's swimming and diving teams on the first day of competition at the Texas Invitational at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Thursday. At the conclusion of the first day, the Texas men's squad sits in first place with 266 team points, followed by Arizona in second with 235. Southern Cal rounds out the top three for the men with 190 points. Meanwhile, Texas' women's team finished with 279.50 points, just two points behind Arizona, which is in first with 281.50. Bisordi, who sat in the third place with a score of 288.30 after the morning prelims, improved his score by nearly 42 points to earn the victory in the one-meter dive. Meanwhile, Texas' women's squad posted its victory in the final event of the first day, the 400-yard medley relay. The team, comprised of freshman Hayley McGregory (Houston, Texas), sophomore Elizabeth Tinnon (Bowling Green, Ky.), Wanezek and junior Kristy Siminski (Portage, Ind.), earned the win with an NCAA Automatic qualifying time of 3:42.62. In Thursday's fourth event of finals competition - the 100-yard butterfly - Wanezek posted a runner-up performance with an NCAA Automatic qualifying time of 53.48. Shortly thereafter, DiToro added a lifetime best of 47.04, to earn an automatic trip to the NCAA Championships in March. Of note, freshman Dan Rohleder (Austin, Texas) posted a fourth-place performance in the 100-yard butterfly, clocking 47.87. Following the 100-yard butterfly, in perhaps the most competitive races in all of Thursday's events, was the final heat of the men's 500-yard freestyle - a race that featured two Texas freshmen in Caleb McDermott (Canyon Lake, Texas) and Matthew McGinnis (Raleigh, N.C.), as well as 2004 Olympians Larsen Jenson, Ous Mellouli and Peter Vanderkaay. Although USC's Mellouli led for much of the race, Michigan's Vanderkaay out-touched Mellouli and USC teammate Jensen, who both clocked 4:15.43 to finish tied for second. McGinnis and McDermott placed sixth and seventh, with times of 4:25.41 and 4:28.13, respectively. In the next event, a highly competitive women's 200-yard individual medley, senior Kaela Humphries (Chaska, Minn.) placed fourth in 2:00.72, just five-hundredths-of-a-second off NCAA Automatic qualifying standards, and was the top performer for the Texas women, who placed four swimmers in the top eight and qualified a total of 11 swimmers for the finals in that event. Meanwhile, in the men's version of the 200-yard individual medley, junior David Khan (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) turned in a strong effort, going neck-and-neck with Wisconsin's Adam Mania and Arizona's Dave Rollins before touching the wall fourth in 1:46.91. Following Wanezek's performance in the 50-yard freestyle, in which she earned her second runner-up and second NCAA Automatic qualifying time of the day, DiToro added a fifth-place showing in the men's 50-yard freestyle (20.27). Sophomore Garrett Weber-Gale posted a time of 20.52 in the 'B' finals of the 50-yard free, which is tied for sixth-fastest in the finals of that event. In addition to DiToro's second-place posting in the 100-yard butterfly, he also turned in a fifth-place performance in the 50-yard freestyle (20.27) and swam on Texas' 200-yard freestyle relay squad, which placed third in a time of 1:20.44, and its 400-medley relay team, which capped off Thursday's racing taking fourth place in 3:17.30. The University of Texas men's and women's swimming and diving programs return to the Jamail Texas Swim Center on Friday for the second day of competition at the Texas Invitational. The action gets underway with preliminary swims at 10:00 a.m. and finals at 6:00 p.m.
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