Report #11 -
Seventh Place Finish Underscores Magnificent Era
Ever since that first season of 1979 ended, expectations for a title chase by Eddie Reese-coached Texas teams have become commonplace. As assuredly as winter turns to spring, team members, alums and swim fans have known that Texas would be in the hunt for one of their record fifteen titles. Thirteen times runners-up and another eight times third makes a seventh-place finish in the final season painful unless you view it as a magnificent point of perspective of how special Coach Reese’s forty-six-year tenure at Texas has been.
Take a look from a historical perspective. After Doc Counsilman’s Indiana University squads reeled off six straight NCAA titles from 1968-73, they have finished in the top five only five times in the following 51 years. Peter Daland had an incredible run at USC from 1960-1992 finishing in the top three 23 times and winning eight team titles. In the last thirty years, USC has never finished in the top three despite being led most of those years by Olympic coaches. Eleven times they haven’t made it into the top ten.
Auburn had a great run with Dave Marsh and Richard Quick at the helm between 1997 and 2010, winning eight titles. In the last 14 years, they have never been in the top five. Two of those years they didn’t score a single point.
Finally, Stanford’s Skip Kenney won the championship six times, and kept the team in the top five for thirty years (1982-2012), but in the last twelve years, the Cardinal have only twice finished in the top five at the NCAA Championships.
Dave Durden’s Cal teams seem to have the most potential for a legacy that can hold a candle to Texas. For the last fourteen years the Bears have finished first or second at the NCAAs---quite a run. If Dave can coach another 30 years (into his late 70s) at this level, he could stand side by side with Eddie. That’s a long, steep hike to traverse.
Sustaining a national title effort over 46 seasons has not only been due to a gift for coaching swimming but also incredibly hard work---and the adoption of a lifestyle of excellence. The support of Elinor Reese, “Eddie’s Coach,” can’t be understated in smiling through that tenure.
This season still saw Luke Hobson’s stunning American Record swim of 1:28.81 in the 200-yard freestyle. Eddie Reese has coached swimmers to American records in six decades: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and in the 2020s, a record that in and of itself may never be broken. The 2020 team, which like all other college and university teams did not get to compete in the COVID-cancelled NCAAs, was probably the best team he ever had, but never got the chance to prove it. One pundit stated that the 2020 NCAA meet was most certainly going to be a Texas win, and everyone else was fighting for second place.
This season had Eddie training team members and pros to be fast at the Pan Am Games in October and World Championships in February, but he also brought along Texas swimmers to produce not only the second-fastest 100-backstroke freshman in history (Will Modglin 44.20) but best times, even in their senior seasons, by Coby Carozza and Cole Crane. The freshman class was excellent and the future for the team is in great shape.
There are twelve weeks to the Olympic Trials, with one group, and one target to complete an unparalleled coaching career. If you get the chance along the way to bump into that smiling kid from Daytona Beach, you might say “thank you” for the 46-year ride; from turning the state of Texas into a “swimming state” where you “Don’t Mess with Texas”; to admiring those shaved heads that gave their all and a team to pull for to win another title.
A favorite Eddie Reese saying is, "If it was easy, everyone would do it." Some years were even more fun than others, but it was never easy. His good humor, kindness and respect for others just made it look that way. By finishing seventh in 2024 it shows the fragility of this UT run. History tells us that when anyone else in the world but Eddie Reese was leading any other university this level of sustained success did not happen. Virtually all of the fast swimming and team titles were accomplished by American boys that needed time to develop through the unique gift of Coach Reese's tender touch. So many of "his guys" eventually became the fastest in America and even the world. Most importantly, their success was not only in swimming, but also in their family, chosen career and in their relationships with others.
What a thrilling ride piloted by a man with all the grace from Spirit that any man or woman could hope to walk the day with.
Thank you, Eddie Reese.
RETIREMENT DINNER APRIL 19th in AUSTIN
Get a ticket if you can.
Report #10 - Eddie's Last Hurrah - March 25
In the “first retirement” of 2021, the tale was pretty storybook: Most accomplished and successful collegiate coach in NCAA swimming history wins a record 15th team title and rides off into the sunset. But the transition to a new leader for the Longhorns hit some bumps in the road and Eddie Reese did what he always tries to do --- his best for everyone involved. Here we are three years later with the assurance that Wednesday will begin the final NCAA Championship as head coach of UT for Coach Reese.
This squad of seven swimmers in individual events is the smallest in memory….and our memory is long and strong. Fortunately, swimming hasn’t been the whole story in the UT S&D story. The “D” of course is for diving, and while our beloved 82-year-old mentor is stepping aside we see “the kid” by perspective, springing forward. Coach Matt Scoggin has guided six divers to the 2024 NCAA Championships. If the women’s meet is any indication, Matt has his group ready at the right time, and we are in for a treat. Coach Scoggin’s squad of men is one of his deepest ever. There is also plenty of elite talent in “Matt’s six pack”: Brendan McCourt, Manny Borowski, Tanner Braunton, Noah Duperre, Pierce Brooke, Nick Harris.
So what can we expect or hope for this week?
We can expect the Texas men’s swimmers and divers to do what Coach Reese has always led them to do--- have fun, swim as fast as they can, and compete. No pressure to do something beyond your ability, just find out what's the very best that is inside of you.
We can hope for a rollicking competition between Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, possibly NC State and more, to be a top five team in the standings at the finish on Saturday night. The formula for Texas to be in that elite group of teams could be to score 120 points in relays (avg 7th place), 100+ points in diving, and 150 points or more in individual swimming. That total of 370 points would be just 15 shy of where Texas was a year ago (with three of the team’s biggest scorers Dave Johnston, Carson Foster, and Casper Corbeau opting out of this NCAA season). That would be quite an accomplishment in swimming, diving, and relay racing.
Texas has a recent history of outperforming every other team from psych sheet to NCAAs as Swim Swam pointed out recently: https://swimswam.com/psych-vs-seed-who-gets-better-and-who-doesnt-at-the-ncaa-championships-historic/
As always, Eddie will read each swimmer’s performance and fatigue as the meet progresses and make great choices for relay members as well as order of takeoff. Here is what we think could happen (order and approximate place).
Relays: 120 pts (7th place average)
2 MR: Modglin, Foster, Germonprez, Taylor – top 6
8 Fr R: Hobson, Carrozza, Germonprez, Modglin – top 3
2 FR R: Modglin, Hobson, Germonprez, Taylor – top 16
4 MR: Modglin, Foster, Crane, Hobson – top 6
4 FRR: Hobson, Germonprez, Carrozza, Taylor – top 8
For the divers to clear 100 points, the squad needs about six top-eight performances and a handful of bottom eight scoring. This could come in all sorts of combinations but overall, 3-meter might be a little deeper of an event for the team than 1-meter or tower.
The swimmers could score 150 points with ten top eight finishes and a smattering of consolation final swims. With the likes of two of the best in the world in Luke Hobson and Jake Foster, along with some of the very best in the USA, Coby Carrozza, Will Modglin, as well as the support group of Nate Germonprez, Cole Crane, and Chris O’Connor, that can happen.
Swimming World ran a nice article on Eddie’s Last Hurrah HERE:
Our only prediction: Eddie walks off the deck Saturday night smiling. What a ride he’s given every Texas swimming and diving fan.
Love the coach, love the team!!!
We are continuing to run our EDDIE REESE Audio Book &
Four Champions, One Gold Medal this week.
www.chuckwarnerbooks.com/books
Report #9 - Eddie's Last Hurrah - March 11, 2024
For those looking for results from the Texas A & M last chance meet, you can find them HERE:
https://www.swimcloud.com/results/299677/team/105/
There were not any swims that should qualify for NCAAs. It does look as though Chris O’Connor has a very good chance to qualify in the 200 backstroke to swim in Indy. You can see the top collegiate times HERE:
Generally, the 31st-place swim is about what it takes to qualify in the men’s meet and Chris is at 29th today.
This will mean the swimming portion of the Texas squad should include: Luke Hobson, Coby Carozza, Jake Foster, Will Modglin, Nate Germonprez, Cole Crane, Chris O’Connor, and a variety of relay-only possibilities.
Zone Diving is at the University of Houston today through Wednesday. You can link to the competition HERE:
https://uhcougars.com/news/2024/3/11/preview-swimming-diving-hosts-ncaa-zone-d-diving-championships
If you are not current on diving technology, they do an amazing job of calculating and posting scores as the divers perform to make following these remarkable athletes easier to do.
How does Zone Qualifying Work?
Zone D holds some of the most qualification spots for the NCAA Championships with 11 in the 1-meter and nine each in the 3-meter and platform. A diver who qualifies in any of the three events is also eligible for the other two events, provided they finish in the top 12 in the latter events at Zones.
Update on Zone Diving: Five Texas men qualified on first day, in the 3 meter board. Tanner Brauton, Nick Harris, Noah Duperre and Manual Borowski finsihed 3, 4, 5, 6 in one of the top Zones in the the country. Brendan McCourt was ninth to also qualify. Pierce Brooke is a good tower diver and has a chance to qualify there.
We continue this offer through the NCAA Championships for the audiobook (including Eddie and his Epilogue on his career “forks in the road.") EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life and the iconic read: Four Champions, One Gold Medal.
Report #8 - Eddie’s Last Hurrah - March 3, 2024
Big 12s
Almost anyone who has coached swimming knows the feeling of a churning stomach as they wait to watch their troops perform at the big meet, especially when they did what was asked of them to do in training. Then it becomes the coach’s burden to watch the execution and judge their own coaching performance. Whether 22, 42, 62 or 82 years old the emotions can be gut-wrenching. Then all the questions flash by: whether the work was well-designed, well-executed and the rest (taper) was right; was the rest too much or too little? And that rumination leads the coach to pondering the next decision about what can or can’t be done for another meet at Texas A&M in just another week (March 7-9) if one hasn’t qualified for NCAAs three weeks away; which, if they have, gives you a different window to navigate.
The short summary of Big 12s: Texas went into the meet with Luke Hobson, Will Modglin and Jake Foster qualified for NCAAs. UT likely added Coby Carrozza, Cole Crane, and Nate Germonprez. Chris O’Connor’s 200 back from the November Invite of 1:40.4 could possibly make it into the meet. There are at least another six UT men very close to qualifying in Morgantown that could qualify next week. Coach Reese will also be able to take relay-only swimmers and there are several that might help in that capacity.
The Texas men had many wonderful swims throughout the conference meet, so let’s start with some of those. In a Tuesday morning time trial, Ryan Branon swam a 1:42.79 200 fly, both a career best and just off NCAA-qualifying by about .5 of a second. UT had many other excellent 200 fly swims later in the week with Cole Crane’s career best (1:42.04) likely qualifying him for NCAAs, and Alec Filipovic improved his best by two seconds to 1:43.43.
Sprint freestyle has been a major concern for the Longhorns the last couple of years, and virtually everyone on the team, given the opportunity, swam the best 50 of their lives. Start with Cole Crane’s win in the 50 (19.32), and then one can go down the line with career bests by Peter Paulus (19.56), Alec Filipovic (19.54), Camden Taylor (19.58), Ethan Doehler (20.16) and Nate Germonprez (18.91 relay start). In Coach Reese’s pre-meet press conference he mentioned swimming “no-breath” 50s regularly at Thursday practices. https://texassports.com/news/2024/2/22/mens-swimming-and-diving-video-eddie-reese-media-availability.aspx
Career bests by Coby Carrozza in the 200 (1:31.97 relay leadoff) and 500 (4:11.95) earned him elusive conference titles that might have been harder to come by if teammate Luke Hobson had not been home training, rather than competing at Big 12s. Coby commented afterward “Eddie said he wanted me to go 49 on the last 100.” The smiling champion split 49.3 to finish the race. Coby also swam a lifetime best in the 100 (42.83). Do you think Coby is pleased to trade the 100 for the 200 fly on the last day of NCAAs this year?
Freshman Camden Taylor (6’ 10” tall) appears to have an enormous future. In his freshman year at Texas, he has improved his 50 one half second, his 100 (42.53) over a full second, and his 200 (1:33.90) by 2.5 seconds. Regardless of individual qualifying, he may well be seeing relay action at NCAAs, especially after his 41.69 split (r:0.27) on the Big 12 400 free relay.
Nate Germonprez began his stepping out party with a 1.7 improvement of his best 200 IM (1:41.2). Hearing teammate and triple conference champion Will Modglin say, “I can’t wait to see what Nate is going to do at NCAAs,” suggests the freshmen expect even more of themselves in Indianapolis. Nate followed with a 1:33.00 200 free (1:31.86 relay split) and a win in the 100 free (42.2). As important as almost anything else he did was his 50 fly (19.82) on the 200-medley relay that helped propel the team into the top 8 in the nation.
Relay Starts: The one relay that UT needed to qualify was the 200 free relay. The squad (Paulus, Taylor, Germonprez, Modglin) knew it, but also seemed to know pushing the exchanges would not be a smart thing to do. The exchanges of .28, .17 and .23 average .22. The time of 1:17.02 is better than the B cut. Texas will not be in the final heat at NCAAs, as will be the case in many relays. Hopefully they can take advantage of smooth water, and we believe they will post much faster times.
Avg starts on other relays:
800 FR: .26
200 MR: .26
400 MR: .27
400 FR: .32
Freshman Will Scholtz and Brayden Taivassalo earned their first and last titles in the Big12, since UT will move to the SEC next year. Will’s 52.09 100 is about .2 off what NCAA qualifying is likely to be and Brayden’s 1:53.28 200 about .4 shy of NCAAs.
The diving crew is exceptional. Veterans Noah Duperre, Manny Borowski, and Brendan McCourt are balanced with sophomore world champion Nick Harris and Coach Scoggin’s additions of freshmen Tanner Braunton and Austin local Pierce Brooke. Tanner and Pierce both join Noah on tower to make a much stronger threesome than last year. Tanner comes out of a gymnastics background and has been diving just a few years. He won the conference title in tower (452 pts!). The freshman also qualified for USA Olympic Trials in tower and 3-meter. As you likely know, divers qualify for NCAAs at Zones. Hopefully, we’ll see 4-6 young men performing and scoring for Texas in Indianapolis.
Whoever becomes the new Texas head coach for the 2024-25 season will have to be buoyed to know their team nucleus will include Hobson, Modglin, Germonprez, Taylor, Scholtz, Taivassalo, as well as David Johnston who says he’ll be back at Texas for two more years of grad school, after a year away training for Paris.
A mantra of Eddie Reese’s is “every swimmer on the team matters” (exhibited in this clip from the Eddie Reese audio book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv4DUGvnYMc). That means that the coach’s trip home today to Austin comes while creating a plan for each team member moving forward. For many, their efforts to swim fast at conference will be used to springboard (with additional rest) to another level of performance in less than a week’s time.
We can expect to see more NCAA cuts made at the Texas A&M Invite. Some to look out for: Sam Artmann (200 fly), Chris O’Connor (200 back), Alec Enyeart (1650), Ryan Branon (200 fly), Brayden Taivassalo (200 breast), Will Scholtz (100 breast), Alec Filipovic (2 IM, 2 fly or 1 fly), and possibly Camden Taylor (100 free). Many of these guys had trouble finishing their races well. Although some see it as counterintuitive, if the swimmer has worked consistently hard throughout the season, the standard remedy to have a strong finish is more rest…and a dash more of Texas mental toughness.
We’ll find out soon.
Report #7 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - February 26, 2024
Big 12 Texas Men’s Preview
After a sizzling past weekend of swimming, particularly at the ACC and SEC Conference meets, starting Tuesday 2/27, it’s time for the Longhorns to show what they can do. When one sees Notre Dame’s little-known Chris Guiliano swim a 47.49 long course 100 free (faster than Michael Phelps) the day after the ACC Championships, it’s a reminder of the enormous depth in American swimming. Every fast American swim pushes their competitor to be faster. The outcome is a USA Olympic team that typically rises to a level that outshines every other country in the world. Talk about speed last week, it wasn’t too long ago that we marveled at the 42+ 100-yard freestyle. At the SEC Championships Florida’s (and Canada’s) Josh Liendo split 42.77 on the butterfly leg of their 400 Medley Relay, the fastest fly split in history.
Who from Texas is going to push the envelope of fast swimming? Will it be this week or at NCAAs?
When considering what Eddie Reese and his men have in front of them starting on Tuesday, it’s worth noting the Longhorn performances at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar last week. Luke Hobson was one of the outstanding American men swimming a 1:45.26 twice in the 200-meter freestyle; once individually and then leading off the thrilling 800 free relay in which the USA was sadly out-touched by the Chinese and Koreans. Three of the relay members were from the Texas men’s program with Carson Foster splitting a world best 1:43.94 and Dave Johnston (currently training in California) anchoring in a courageous career best of 1:47.15.
In addition to Luke, Jake Foster, a member of this year’s men’s squad, also performed very well. His 100 breaststroke (59.48) was a lifetime best and his 200 (2:09.23 ) was close. Neither Luke or Jake will swim at conference, logically putting in some work since they arrived home. This will help them be at their best four weeks from now when the men’s NCAAs begin in Indianapolis and in June at the Olympic Trials.
The addition of both BYU and the University of Cincinnati to the Big 12 this year should add quite a bit to the competition atmosphere. What follows here is a nontraditional view of what to look for in the men’s meet from Texas:
https://big12sports.com/tournaments/?id=1022&path=swim
Tuesday:
200 Medley Relay:
How fast will the butterfly and freestyle splits be? UT should be able to compete neck and neck with almost any team in the country at NCAAs for 100 yards. But some other teams have 18+ butterfly splits and a 19 fly split is commonplace. Will we see a Texas fly split in the low 20s? Hopefully, and a 19 + would be a game changer. Alec Filipovic has been 18.9 on a freestyle split. A mid 18 or better is common around the country for the best teams. We’re anxious to see what one or more of the guys can do.
How precise will the relay exchanges be? A .20 transition used to be considered fast, but no more. No one wants the unthinkable (DQ) but three exchanges that average .12 would be a nice step forward to improving the overall time of the relay by two tenths of a second, were it with slower starts.
800 Free Relay:
Who is the third and fourth swimmer? Surely Eddie will have Coby Carozza and Nate Germonprez on the relay. But does he use Will Modglin again, as he did at the November Invite? If Will is on the 800 free relay, is he coming off of another relay at NCAAs? The logical one for him to give up seems like it would be the 200 free relay but he’s probably UT’s fastest swimmer in the 50. Another option is to put Manning Haskel on the 800 FR, who split 1:33 in November.
Who leads off? It will likely be Coby Carozza or Nate Germonprez who both need to qualify for NCAAs. A 1:32.5 should take care of that the first night. Something either of them seem capable of.
Wednesday:
500 Freestyle: How well is Alec Enyeart swimming? Last season he swam a 4:14 500 with a scoring mile at NCAAs. Is he faster?
200 IM: This could be a good event at NCAA for Texas with at least Jake Foster, Will Modglin and Nate Germonprez all capable of scoring. Perhaps two in the top eight? There are other guys that could go 1:42, which is what is likely needed to qualify for NCAAs.
50 Free: HUGE! Are those guys that hovered in the high 19s or low 20s going to drop a half a second or more? If they do it really helps the team and may be a lightning rod to spark a big meet from the whole team.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday:
We are so excited to see Eddie’s team perform at their last conference meet that it’s hard to think that far ahead!!
Butterfly: Big! Is someone going 45-low or better flat start? Can there be another big breakthrough in the 200 for several guys? If so, there should be two or more NCAA scorers in the group in the 200.
Backstroke: Chris O’Connor’s 200 of 1:40.42 at the Invite may not make NCAAs. Chris is getting more speed in the 100 (45.74) and is due for another big step forward. Will Modglin is special, but will his best be at NCAAs? One would think so.
Breaststroke: Big!! Freshman Will Scholtz and Brayden Taivassalo both need to take another step in their development to qualify for NCAAs. They’re both close, and they’re both really, really good; 51.5 and 1:52.5 is the type of swimming needed. And look out for Alex Turney who was very good at the SMU dual meet.
200 free relay (on Friday): We need the B cut in this (1:16.80). If there is speed in the speed guys, no problem, as long as they have good exchanges. Modglin, Germonprez, Taaylor, Filipovic, Carozza, Paulus, and Crane are at least some of the possible relay members.
Diving: This isn’t the test. Zones is the first big one. But six healthy guys on each board would be great to see. How many will be on tower?
Hold on to your seat everyone, for Eddie Reese’s last conference meet!!
***BONUS-BONUS-BONUS***
Video of Eddie speaking to the media last week
about the upcoming Big 12 and NCAAs!!!
Video: Eddie Reese media availability - University of Texas Athletics (texassports.com)
Report #6 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - February 10, 2024
Jill Sterkel Invite and the last Reese-coached dual meet against SMU
The old SMU rivalry from Coach Reese’s first years at Texas seemed, to some degree, to be back on Friday February 9 for Eddie’s final dual meet. Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh has brought the Mustangs a long way since he took over as head coach five years ago. The teams enjoyed a luncheon and honored Eddie during the last break in the swimming events, when SMU presented him with a plaque made from the wood from the old Perkins Natatorium.
The Longhorns are showing more and more signs of strength and development as the conference meet beckons in just 17 days. Freshman Nate Germonprez seems to be teetering on an explosion in his swimming. His 200 free 1:34.52 and 1:44.22 200 IM are both nearing NCAA qualifying in dual meets. Nate’s times are nearly as fast as they were at the November Invitational.
Germonprez also led off the 200 free relay in 19.72 at the Jill Sterkel Invite February 3. The short relay is the only one that UT has yet to qualify in for NCAAs by earning the B Cut of 1:17.38. He was followed by Alec Filipovic 19.10, Will Modglin 19.46 and Camden Taylor 19.12, totaling a 1:17.40, the team’s best time of the season, but narrowly missing the B standard.
Relay exchanges were: .23, .28 and .21. A total of .72 and an average of .24.
Freshman Camden Taylor seems to be developing into not only an outstanding sprint freestyler, but an excellent all-around swimmer. At the Sterkel Invite he posted a 4:24.66 in the 500 along with his outstanding 200 free relay split. Against SMU he toughed out a win in the 100 free with a 43.80 and split 19.20 on the 200 free relay. And of course, classmate Will Scholtz keeps rolling along winning the breaststrokes in impressive times of 52.96 and 1:57.03. As these freshman hover around career bests in dual meets, one has to be excited about how fast they may swim in 17 days with rest and a shave.
We’re not privileged to the inside story of preparation but watching Coby Carrozza’s great effort in the 500 freestyle on Friday makes one wonder if he didn’t have NCAA qualifying (4:13+) on his mind. Coby led SMU’s great Jack Hoagland through the first 200 with 50 splits of 22.95, 25.32, 25.96, 26.27. But as his pace started to weaken for the next three 50s (26.60, 26.57, 26.41) Hoagland moved past him. Despite that, he posted a season-best 4:16.92, an outstanding swim nonetheless.
Coach Reese’s touch seems to be behind the progressive improvement of many on the team. Some examples in the distance races are Andrew Zettle’s 500 (4:27.82), which was right on his career best. Alec Enyeart’s 9:01.20 1000 hit the pace (55s) he’ll need to swim to qualify in the 1650. Grad/Senior butterfliers Cole Crane and Sam Artmann are also a good example. While still about two seconds shy of their 100 speed (Cole 47.91 and Sam 47.16) they are only 2-3 seconds off (Cole 1:45.16 and Sam 1:44.81) their best 200s. Crane also swam one of his fastest 50 splits (20.80) on the 200-medley relay with a slow (.45) relay exchange, indicating his underwater dolphin kicking is making a step forward.
On the 200 Medley Relay the UT swimmer exchanges were .20, .45 and .22. for an average .29
SMU was .07, .05 and .13 for an average of .08, or a total difference between the two teams of .63, SMU being about .2 seconds faster on each exchange.
The first half of UT’s medley relays are going to be good with Will Modglin and either Jake Foster or Will Scholtz. If the butterflyers can hold their own and hand off to any number of 50 freestylers or perhaps Luke Hobson in the 400-medley relay, the 2024 Texas performance should markedly outperform that of 2023.
The Texas 200 free relay was again just shy of the NCAA B Cut with a time of 1:17.50. Relay exchanges were .21, .20 and .27, for an average of .23
The divers were more than a handful for SMU, even without Noah Duperre, who is competing at the World Aquatic Championships in Doha, Qatar. Manny Borowski, Nick Harris, Brendan McCourt, Tanner Braunton and Pierce Brooke, in that order, went 1-2-3-4-5 on 3-meter, all scoring more than 350 points. Impressive! The order shuffled on 1-meter where they were 1-2-3-5-6, with Harris scoring a fraction over 400 points. What a diving squad Coach Scoggins has this year!
Be on the lookout for Luke Hobson and Jake Foster at the World Aquatics Championships this week in Doha. The racing starts February 11th and includes Jake Foster’s 100-meter breaststroke. Luke swims the 200-meter freestyle on February 12th.
That’s all for now, next up will be Big 12 Championships from Morgantown, WV! Hook ’em!
Links:
SMU dual meet results
Link to Swimming World report
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/texas-concludes-dual-meet-season-with-sweep-of-smu//
World Championships info link
https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/2969/21st-fina-world-championships-doha-2024
World Championships Live Results link
Big 12 Championships link
https://big12sports.com/feature/2024-swimming-and-diving-championship
Report #5 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - January 28, 2024
Texas at NC State
Eddie Reese’s final collegiate squad in this 2023-2024 season is clearly a young one dominated by underclassmen, but it was a senior, a senior that surprised anyone who hadn't seen his name on the UT roster when the new semester began, who brightened things up for the 'Horns in North Carolina over the weekend. Jake Foster, now a graduate student, has joined the squad and did it in exciting fashion. Junior Luke Hobson also set up his trip this week to the World Championships in Doha, Qatar with outstanding performances.
The format for the contest in Raleigh with #3-ranked NC State was to compete in diving first, then run through a “short format” of events virtually non-stop, much like a high intensity practice, but finishing with a men’s 1650. If you were lucky enough to watch the show that began at 5:30 pm, by 7:45 you had seen 19 men’s and women’s events and were on the way to your car.
As one might expect, the divers staked the men out to a 22 point lead when Noah Duperre and Nick Harris went one-two on both the one- and three-meter boards. Then it was up to the swimmers to see how long they could stay out front. In the end the Wolfpack came out on top 130-92, but we’re here to document some of the key swims along the way.
Jake Foster showed more speed in breaststroke than seen before with nation-leading times including a 23.1 split on the 200-medley relay and winning the 100 in 51.22. Close behind was some emerging Texas magic. Freshman Will Scholtz split 23.5 on the B Texas relay and then finished second in the 100 with a time of 52.67. The significance of Will’s performance is that after improving over a second from his best time at the fall invitational, he is now swimming nearly as fast in a dual meet after 10 more weeks of training. Effective, progressive training has long been the hallmark of Coach Reese’s intuitive approach to helping each swimmer improve, and this is the type of progression that bears evidence to that adaptation.
There are other similar, exciting examples of progress for the Longhorns. One is freshman Camden Taylor who swam his lifetime best times in both the 50 (19.88) and 100 (43.31). Sophomore Alec Filipovic’s 18.92 50 free relay split is a career-best and shows speed much needed for the team’s short relays. Freshman Nate Germonprez swam almost as fast as the November invitational in his 200 freestyle against Duke on Saturday (1:34.93) and 200 IM against NC State (1:44.40), indicating he should be well-positioned to perform at the conference meet in 5 weeks.
NCAA double-champion Luke Hobson left the field behind at the 100, blasting a reported 23.1 third 50 to post the third-fastest 200 (1:31.9) in the country this year. Luke was out touched in the 500 but posted a credible 4:16.34 in the thrilling finish.
It bears mentioning that the #2-ranked women’s team tore through a very strong #8-ranked NCAA squad.
It’s Senior Day for the men and women at home this Friday (Feb 2) against TCU.
SAVE THE DATE: April 19, 2024 Eddie Reese Retirement Dinner
Report #4 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - December 4, 2023
U.S. Open News:
The US Open conducted over the last few days (November 29-December 2) in Greensboro, North Carolina was a quiet competition for most of the Texas men as the guys prepare for semester exams December 4-7. But there were a few key swims we’d like to point out that could easily fly under the radar.
At the Big 12 Championships in February 2023, Jackson Huckabay was one of the big bright spots with his 500 improvement of 4:16.31 from a high school best of 4:26. (see https://swimswam.com/as-a-freshman-jackson-huckabays-first-500-free-was-454-he-went-416-last-week/) Huckaby, now a junior, was missing from the Hall of Fame Invite leaving us concerned.
Jackson was not a top 100 ranked recruit coming out of Tulare, California, despite posting best times of 44.55 and 1:37.59 in the 200. Once thought of as a sprinter in high school he turned his focus from water polo to swimming. As he’s built his endurance, he’s added a 15:02.44 1650 to his 500 and posted a 1:34.38 200 at last year’s conference meet.
Jackson was absent from the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational but reappeared at the Open, representing the University of Texas. His 200-meter free of 1:51.51 and 400 of 4:00.02 were within close range of his best times from last summer of 1:50.93 and 3:55.62. If Jackson is healthy and competing for UT in the second semester it should be a good boost for the team, including a possible option on the 800 free relay.
The second key swimmer for Eddie’s squad was Kobe Ndebele, the sophomore from South Africa. At the Hall of Fame Invite Kobe was one of the team’s few swimmers who was well off his best times of 19.76 (50), 43.10 (100) and 1:34.48 (200). A step forward by the sophomore this season would be of great help to the team, possibly including the short relays.
Something Coaches Reese and Collins may be navigating this season is the home country considerations for competing in an Olympic Year. This may be the case for Ndebele as well as Brayden Taivassalo from Canada and perhaps Sasha Lyubavskiy from Russia. That may be why Kobe was more prepared for the Open than the Invite and swam his best ever 50-meter free of 22.94, improving on his previous best of 23.31. His 100 (50.34) was just off his best time of 49.85.
The divers are scheduled for US Winter Nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee November 29-December 6. Next up will be the TYR Pro Swim Series Meet January 10-13, also in Knoxville, Tennessee. We won’t be back to short course racing until the NC State dual meet January 26the, leaving a long, important training period.
Exciting update! We are pleased that the EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life audiobook will be released in a “soft launch” this Friday December 8th. Initially the book will only be available at www.eddiereesebook.com. It features a new epilogue with Eddie’s reflections back on his career. We are also pleased that Eddie has narrated over sixty “Eddie-isms” in the book. Does he have more book narration in his future? We can only hope!
Happy Holidays, Everyone!
Report #3 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - Nov 19, 2023
Intro: In the upcoming release of the audiobook version of "EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life", Chuck shares a quote from UT Diving Coach Matt Scoggin, which we are using to launch this installment of "Eddie's Last Hurrah"
12.5 weeks into season
14.5 more weeks to conference
18 weeks to NCAAs
29 weeks to Olympic Trials (June 15 start)
LISTEN TO EDDIE, CHUCK, AND MATT SCOGGIN (voiced by Chuck)
ON COACHING DIVING:
But Matt is a heckuva diving coach whether he gets any “help” from Eddie or not.
Witness this:
Diving – The extreme “birdseye view” from 10-meters, as a freshman flies high!
Before we launch into the Hall of Fame Invitational, the newsflash is that the divers held their own Invite two weeks ago and were really “ripping it”! There is a new man on top of that tower now. Freshman diver Tanner Braunton “towered” over his teammates in winning the 10-meter platform, the first collegiate win of his career. Coach Matt Scoggin seems to have one of the deepest squads of men he has ever assembled. With three returning NCAA scorers (Nick Harris, Noah Duperre, Brendan McCourt) and two exceptional freshmen (Braunton, Pierce Brooke) this could be a special year.
Authors note: The commentary is of our own opinion and is not, at this point anyway, in consult with Coach Reese or Coach Collins. Our objective is to allow the staff and team to enjoy every moment of “Eddie’s Last Hurrah” together, while offering some observations about how the season is progressing, admittedly from the cheap seats.
Individual Improvement
Anyone following the Invitational will note the electrifying performances of freshman Will Modglin. While the team is only twelve and a half weeks into the school year’s training, Will tore through his entire short course swimming resume by posting new personal bests in every event he swam. His 100 back time of 44.49 is only behind John Shebat’s school record 44.35 (2017 NCAAs) as second all-time for UT. With a full training potential of eighteen and half weeks, Modglin has set himself up for exciting possibilities at NCAAs in Indianapolis.
In addition to Will’s best times in his individual races of the 200 back (1:38.99) and 200 individual medley (1:41.84) he led off the 200 medley relay in 20.60, the 200 free relay in 19.55 and the 400 free relay in 42.49, all personal bests.
SWIMSWAM’S COLEMAN HODGES ON WILL’S THOUGHTS ON USING THE BACKSTROKE WEDGE:
Perhaps the most outstanding single improvement of the competition, however, was Manning Haskal’s 1:33.53 split anchoring the B 800 free relay. The time was a full three seconds faster than Manny’s previous time of 1:36.54, albeit with a relay start. Flat-start Manny swam a 1:34.47. Other top improvements included Coby Carrozza’s 42.29 split on the 400 free relay and Chris O’Connor’s 45.74 100 backstroke. The early season improvement by both seniors is proof of training compounding on itself to help hardworking, recovery-minded athletes continue to improve through all four years at Texas. We saw a marvelous example of that aspect in 2017 when Will Licon (200 breast 1:47.91), Clark Smith (500/1650 free 4:08.42/14:22.41), and Jack Conger (200 fly 1:37.35) all set new American records in their senior seasons. Way to Hook ‘em!
Just like in political polling, we often look for trends, and in reviewing a swim team’s performance, we perhaps view things through our coaching eyes. We see sophomore and freshman classes making a strong push toward getting much faster. Alex Filipovic started with an Olympic Trial cut in the 100-meter butterfly (53.38) on Wednesday morning and was followed closely by classmate Holden Smith (53.88). Alex Turney, whose previous best time was 53.79 in the 100 breaststroke, split 51.94 on the C 400 medley relay, although he did not have a legal exchange with the backstroker (r:-.05). Fellow sophomores Sasha Lyubavskiy , Alec Enyeart, Ethan Doehler, and Spencer Aurnou-Rhees had at least one personal best over the weekend, as did freshmen George Flanders, Camden Taylor, Finn Winkler, and Nate Germonprez.
Freshman breaststrokers Will Scholtz and Brayden Taivassalo both approached NCAA qualifying with substantial improvements. Scholtz improved over a full second in his 100 (52.47) and over two seconds in his 200 (1:54.35). Taivassalo, a silver medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:10.70) at the Pan American Games last month, had times of 52.80 and 1:53.89 which were also much faster than his best, although shy of NCAA qualifying.
Relays
The NCAA rules for qualifying relays today state that if a team qualifies one A relay, then they can swim any other relays they have the “B” standard in. Teams can also bring “relay only” swimmers to the meet. (Full details here https://tinyurl.com/mttpcf94
Over the course of the meet Texas bettered the A time standard in the 800 and 400 free relays. UT also bettered the B standard in the 200 medley relay and by adding up individual 100s (aggregate time) also qualified in the 400 medley relay. The one outstanding time standard missing is the 200 free relay (1:17.62) where they just missed the B cut (1:17.38). It certainly would have been nice to have that sprint relay qualifying out of the way!
The relay performances were exceptional. Most notably freshman Nathan Germonprez showed himself to be a tremendous relay swimmer. Nate was slightly off most of his lifetime best times, although he did post one in the 100 breaststroke (52.64), but that didn’t keep him for shining in each and every relay. His 50 free split on the 200 free relay of 19.27 and his 100 (42.55) on the 400 free relay are much faster than he has ever swum. Nate likely narrowly missed posting a 200 IM (1:43.14) qualifying time for NCAAs.
Another notable relay swim was by Peter Paulus in the C 200 medley relay where he split 20.64 on the butterfly, faster than anyone on the team (A fly 20.71, B fly 20.93). Peter also did so with just a .30 exchange.
In our second commentary we did point out the closeness in depth of relays at NCAAs and thus the value in being precise on relay starts. Below is a list of UT’s exchanges.
Relay starts: 3 Total Exchanges
RELAY Total Avg Time
200 MR A 0.63 .21 avg
200 MR B 0.77 .25 avg
200 MR C 0.81 .27 avg
800 Fr R A 0.76 .25 avg
800 Fr R B 0.54 .18 avg
4 MR A 0.61 .20 avg
4 MR B 0.32 Jump -.05
200 Fr R A 0.49 .16 avg
200 Fr R B 0.61 .20 avg
200 Fr R C 0.85 .28 avg
4 Fr R A 0.73 .24 avg
4 Fr R B 0.91 .30 avg
A reasonable goal might be to be .15 average on 200 relays, .20 on 400 relays and .25 on the 800 free relay. But that’s definitely old-coach, cheap-seat thoughts!!
What’s next?
Fall recess is this week, so no classes. The US Open is next week, and the l
Report #2 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - Nov 5, 2023
Intro: In the upcoming release of the audiobook version of "EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life", Chuck shares a quote from Shaun Jordan, which we are using to launch this installment of "Eddie's Last Hurrah"
“…the reason we’re swimming fast..."
Click the link and then the PLAY arrow to hear it!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/125HNfiFnubEiEWgkUQ3g1UwM56R-AXZG/view?usp=sharing
Those words by 1992 and 1996 Olympian, Shaun Jordan, suggest the process of training investment that takes place in an Eddie Reese program. They are also important words to keep in mind as we follow Eddie’s final collegiate season, or Eddie’s “Last Hurrah.”
Since the Jordan days, the qualifying for, and speed at the NCAA Championships has gotten faster and faster. Eddie has described the tiny difference between good and great. His comment, which is just one of over 130 Eddie-quotes, read by Coach Reese in the audiobook version of "EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life" can be heard here:
Click here to HEAR Eddie, then click the PLAY arrow as before:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WwqjhkGPdkH4d_LDDy-8L7bNu4ULVEyL/view?usp=sharing
He has made changes to his program that balance the training investment Shaun refers to with a fall shave to get the difficult NCAA time standards out of the way and set up a longer training block of December, January, and February to prepare for the March championships.
Two weeks ago, 13th-ranked Texas A&M upset #6 Tennessee. On Friday, A&M swam even better to do the same to #7-ranked Texas in College Station.
Let’s take a look inside the Longhorns’ performance.
A year ago, sprint freestyle had been a glaring weakness for Texas. Improvement this season will be a key to the team’s success. On Friday UT finished the competition in sterling fashion swimming two seconds faster than one week ago, with a time of 1:18.88 to beat A&M (1:19.68) and Georgia Tech (1:19.21), the third team in the meet. The Longhorns’ first three swimmers were freshmen. High School Swimmer of the Year Will Modglin led off with a 19.93, just .4 seconds off of his lifetime best. After a relatively poor meet up to this point, freshman Nate Germonprez split 19.81, then Camden Taylor swam the fastest 50 of his life of 19.49. Senior
Coby Carrozza, after a day of swimming well in the 1000 and 500, anchored in 19.65.
Carrozza’s day of swimming included two beautifully split long races (1000 of 4:31/4:30, and a 500 of 2:09/2:08 [250s]), but then he showed his newfound speed with his anchor swim. Coby’s contribution on a 400 free relay may not only be a huge plus to the team’s season, but his speed may help his 200-meter freestyle at Olympic Trials. If all goes well, he’ll also show that speed at the Paris Olympics.
Looking a little closer, relay exchanges were .29 for Germonprez, .15 for Taylor and .35 for Carrozza. It wasn’t long ago that exchanges of .15-.20 would be considered very fast. But in the last couple of years, teams like the University of Florida have separated themselves from the rest of the field on the short relays, in part, with regular exchanges of .00 to .08.
At the 2023 NCAAs, the difference between the fourth and seventh place 400 freestyle relays was one-tenth of a second. That small difference of time equaled six team points. Final team scores were UT third (384), Indiana fourth (379), NC State fifth (373.5) and Florida sixth (367.5). The opportunity for relay start exchange improvement, especially by the freshmen, will be an important factor in the UT relay performances.
With just eleven days to the start of the invitational at UT, seeing adaption to training in the Longhorns was essential at A&M, and it happened over all the team. Sophomore Spencer Aurnou-Rhees was a great example. His 1:36.91 200 free and 3:49.21 400 IM were both just off his lifetime best times. Alec Enyeart appears to be set up well for the invite with a 1000 of 9:04.64 and a 500 of 4:26.29. Classmate Sasha Lyubavskiy’s 500 (4:26.74) was a lifetime best and his 9:10.22 1000 seems to put him in a good position for the invite as well.
Freshman Will Modglin’s 45.77 100 back is just .7 off his national high school record, and his 43.69 100 free is just .4 off of his lifetime best. Moreover, Modglin seems to finish races with a “refuse to lose” mentality that is so characteristic of a special swimmer.
Peter Paulus continues to show promise with a 20.09 50 and 44.41 100 that are just .3 and .7 off of his best-ever times. Camden Taylor’s 43.67 split on the 400-medley relay is yet another sign of his development. The speed that Paulus and Taylor are showing is very important to the Texas season, both individually but also for their relay potential.
While this may be a season when the future months of training toward the Big 12 Conference will change, develop, and improve a team dominated by freshman and sophomores, the November 15-18 invite is critical to setting up the best possible NCAA squad. Getting returning NCAA scorers Hobson, Carrozza, Artman, Enyeart, freshman Modglin, Germonprez, Taivassalo qualified, plus Chris O’Connor, as well as many relays as possible, will bode well for UT. There are many other athletes—including Crane, Aurnou-Rees, Scholtz, and Quarterman—that based upon past performances should have a reasonable chance as well.
The team seems well on its way to making Eddie’s last hurrah, a special season.
Report #1 - Eddie's Last Hurrah? - Oct 29, 2023
A notable aspect of Eddie Reese’s coaching has been the joy that permeates his swimmers, his team, his staff, and himself. That joy has been an underpinning of talented athletes working very hard to make extraordinary improvements in swimming speed. Since Eddie has announced that this will be his last season coaching at Texas, one might describe it as the last collective laugh or last hurrah, he will enjoy with “his guys” in pursuit of fast swimming.
UT has been picked to be out of the top five at the NCAA championships this season and even teetering on staying in the top ten teams in Indianapolis in March. Between now and then we’ll be monitoring the season and pointing out some key swims and challenges in dual meets, in season invitationals and the conference championships.
If you’d like to put all this into more context, read the book “Eddie Reese: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life.” And soon, you will be able to listen to the audio book. This work will give you deep insights into the work, rest and camaraderie that will go into Eddie’s last hurrah.
There are some obvious differences in Eddie’s final squad and some subtle ones to start the season. The obvious includes the decision by the Foster brothers to go pro, Casper Corbeau to move on to Olympic preparation in Denmark and David Johnston’s year off training in California for Trials, and hopefully a performance or more in Paris.
There are several subtle differences in this season’s schedule that revolve around preparation for the June 15-24 Olympic Trials. The intrasquad meet was one week later than usual, the fall invitational is before Thanksgiving, two weeks earlier than normal, and the US Open is on the schedule for November 30-December 2. For the Texas team to surprise the pundits at NCAAs, Eddie will need to bring along an exceptional freshman class, while at the same time helping the returning team members make dramatic improvement. Adding to the challenge will be the preparation of both UT squad members and resident pros for the Trials.
“If you’re not swimming bad at some time of the year, you’re not trying to get better” -Coach Reese (pg 109, Eddie Reese: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life).
So when might that be? The intrasquad meet performances were less spectacular than past years, but the team has also added a week of training before the meet. Afterward, Luke Hobson commented on SwimSwam (https://swimswam.com/luke-hobson-on-september-one-of-the-hardest-training-blocks-ive-ever-been-through/) that “…the last, like, four weeks of training … have been really tough, probably one of the hardest training blocks I've ever been through.” (Hear Luke on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvXzW365d0s)
The Longhorns have been through the SMU Classic where they finished fourth, and this weekend were defeated by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. At first glance that seems disconcerting but let’s look a bit deeper. UT was without five of their twelve best swimmers at UVA including newly crowned Pan Am 200 free (1:47.3) Gold Medalist Coby Carrozza, Pan Am 200 Breast (2:10.7) Silver Medalist Bradyen Taivassalo, Chris O’Connor who also swam well at Pan Ams, Jackson Huckabay, and Cole Crane.
Texas battled UVA to the final relay on Friday night in front of a record UVA crowd of 1220 cheering spectators. Highly-touted freshmen Will Modglin and Nate Germonprez dove right into the fray along with their classmates Camden Taylor and Will Scholtz. Modglin’s win in the 100 backstroke (47.1) and Germonprez' individual medley wins (48.5 and 1:46.5) may have been overshadowed by their versatility swimming on their maximum relay possibilities. But Camden Taylor’s relay splits in the 50 (20.0) and 100 free (44.6), as well as Scholtz’s 54.2 100 breaststroke suggest they are possible NCAA relay contributors as well.
Freshman diver Pierce Brooke is also well worth watching. At UVA he held his own with returning NCAA scorers Nick Harris, Noah Duperre, and Brendan McCourt.
Look out this season for critical progress from sophomores Holden Smith, Alec Filipovic, Spencer Aurnou-Rhees, as well as junior Nathan Quarterman and second-year Peter Paulus, to name a few. The solid swims of Smith’s 48.9 100 fly, Filipovic’s 47.9 100 back, Aurnou-Rhees’ 1:37.9 200 free and Paulus’ 20.4 50 and 45.4 100 free, suggest that in their second full year at Texas they are adapting better to training. The progress by this group will be not only key to the Texas season, but bring Eddie Reese the type of joy that is at the core of his enjoyment of coaching.
The divers hold an invitational the end of the week and the swimmers are racing again on Friday in College Station against the Aggies and Georgia Tech. Friday afternoon practices are typically a high-speed session, in Eddies program. The tri-meet should take the place of that workout with some recovery to follow for the Invite in Austin two weeks later. Look for another week of work that doesn’t markedly slow down the performances from UVA.
Long time UT assistant Kris Kubik once said, “The biggest thing Eddie taught me is that every person matters.” To follow the Longhorns this year, look for each swimmer progressing including names yet mentioned such as sophomores Manning Haskal, Sasha Lyubavskiy and Kobe Ndebele. In this season, the performance of every team member takes on an even higher value in contributing to Eddie’s last hurrah.