Texas to Host Virginia, NC State, Arizona State in High-Powered Weekend Thriller
The teams that occupied the top-two spots at each of the last three NCAA Women’s Championships will be racing this weekend in Austin, Texas, along with a squad that tied for ninth last year. For the men, the defending national champions will compete alongside teams that were fifth and seventh last year. This contest featuring the University of Texas Longhorns, University of Virginia Cavaliers, NC State Wolfpack and Arizona State Sun Devils could be one of the best the sport has ever seen outside of postseason or invitational action.
Retired Texas men’s coach Eddie Reese — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The Longhorns are calling the meet the “Eddie Reese Texas Showdown,” named in recognition of the recently-retired men’s coach who led his team to a record 15 national championships. According to a release, Texas will be turning the Friday night session into a full-scale event, with famous mascot Bevo XV in attendance (and celebrating his 10th birthday). The school’s band and cheer squads will be in attendance, and there will be a pre-meet autograph session featuring Reese and several Paris Olympians.
A schedule loosely mirroring that of the NCAA Championships will be held, with the 500 freestyle, 200 IM and 50 free contested Friday morning beginning at 10 a.m. CT, followed by the 400 IM, 200 free and 100s of each stroke Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. and the 200s of stroke plus the 100 and 1650 free Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Each session will also include exhibition races featuring professional swimmers as well as relays, with the 200 and 400-yard events for medley and freestyle in the lineup.
Texas has hosted several showcase duel meets in the past, most recently this fall against Indiana, but this meet’s competition level will be even greater. Consider the storylines:
Seven Olympic medals from Paris will be among the entrants: the home team will have 200 backstroke gold medalist Hubert Kos plus Luke Hobson, Chris Guiliano and Erin Gemmell, while double butterfly bronze medalist Ilya Kharun races for Arizona State. Virginia’s squad includes Gretchen Walsh, the world’s premier short course swimmer, as well as breaststroker Emma Weber and two other swimmers who captured medals at the Tokyo Games, Alex Walsh and Claire Curzan.
Gretchen Walsh — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The Gretchen Walsh show continues: simply, this Cavaliers senior is a threat to take down records any time she competes, even in a practice suit. Fresh off winning seven gold medals at the Short Course World Championships in December, Walsh returned to the college scene earlier this month against Virginia Tech and swam the fastest 50-yard fly split ever while posting 50 and 100 free times no one else can beat. Walsh already owns the all-time best times in four different short course yards events, and it’s not out of the question she could challenge a record in Austin.
Bob Bowman faces his former team: the coach who guided Arizona State’s national crown last year is now in charge of the men in Austin, and this will be the first time Bowman competes against the Sun Devils since departing less than 48 hours after securing the title, with longtime assistant Herbie Behm being promoted to head coach. Kos will also see some familiar faces as he followed Bowman to Texas this season.
Matchups between the best in the country: with these teams split between four different conferences — Texas in the SEC, Arizona State in the Big 12 and UVA and NC State in the ACC — we will see some exquisite races that otherwise would have waited until the national meets in March. Fifth-years Alex Walsh and Emma Sticklen could race in both the 200 IM and 200 fly, a pair of vents in which Walsh holds the NCAA record but Sticklen has the top times in the country this season. Walsh was last year’s national champion in the 200 IM, but Sticklen has two straight national wins in the 200 fly, including a come-from-behind win over Walsh in 2023.
Depending on how each team lines up, other showdowns featuring multiple top-ranked national swimmers could include:
- Guiliano vs. Arizona State sprinters Kharun, Jonny Kulow and Patrick Sammon plus Jerry Fox and Kaii Winkler of NC State
- Rex Maurer vs. NC State’s Owen Lloyd and Lance Norris in the distance events
- Gemmell vs. Virginia’s Aimee Canny and Anna Moesch in the 200 free
- Curzan vs. NC State freshmen Leah Shackley and Erika Pelaez in the backstroke events
- Weber and Canny vs. Texas freshman Piper Enge and Wolfpack-turned-Longhorn Abby Arens in breaststroke
- Kharun vs. Kos vs. Virginia freshman Spencer Nicholas in the 100 fly
Do the race-by-race results at this meet have exceptional importance with the conference and national championship meets to come? Of course not, this is still a tune-up for the grand prizes to come later, but this meet is still an exceptional one worth highlighting on the sport’s calendar.
Thrilling racing with packed stands and a home-pool advantage? Check. The best swimmers in the same pool actually racing rather than just comparing times? Check. And with so many talented teams in attendance, there is even a sense of stakes rarely found in any regular-season college meet outside of a regional rivalry dual meet. In an already-exciting college season, this meet will surely be the highlight of anything we’ve seen thus far.
