UT Men's Swimming Wrap-Up

Walters swam in the 4 X 200 free relay prelims with Ricky Berens, so he gets a gold medal as well. In total, UT men’s swimmers won 8 golds and 1 silver.

The only female swimmer from UT was incoming freshman Kathleen Hersey, who made the finals in the 200 butterfly but did not win a medal. She should be a force in 2012 if she’s already making the Olympic finals straight out of high school.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe is a volunteer assistant coach for the UT women’s team. Her personal coach, Kim Brackin, is the UT women’s head coach. I don’t think UT is counting her medals in the university’s official medal count since she swam collegiately at Auburn, but she won three silvers and a gold, so it’s good to know UT has that kind of talent coaching our women’s team.

It will be interesting to see who the next great UT swimmers are. Scott Spann and Garrett Weber-Gale look like the favorites. I’d have to think Peirsol, Hansen, and Crocker are probably done, as far as the Olympics go. Hansen has mentioned swimming the world championships next year. He’s obviously disappointed with his times this year and wants to go out on a much higher level. It is also being reported that Kosuke Kitajima is retiring, so that could motivate Hansen to stick around for another year or two, but at 26, I don’t expect to see him in London in 4 years. I think Peirsol has a few more years left. He’s the youngest of the three, but he started his Olympic career at 16, so he’s been swimming at this level for a long time and may not be physically able to be competitive for gold in 4 years.

Despite his disappointing personal finish in the 100m breast, I thought it showed a lot of class to see him in the stands the next day, decked out in an Uncle Sam hat and American flag cheering on his teammates. Shows is true character. Congrats to all the Horns on a great showing.

…showing for the Horns in Beijing. Hansen’s times were, as noted above, far from his best (he set the 100 record at trials) . GWG did not match his best times and, indeed, did not even final in the 100 or 50 (in the latter the bronze time was slower than his best). He did contribute a blistering leg in the 4 × 100 free and we needed every hundredth of a second. Piersol did obliterate his world record in the 100 but in a mildly disappoiting result was beaten (by a world record, to be sure) in the 200. His back leg in the MR was also (for him) very slow. Crocker also seems past his best but you never know. He’s only 26 and Lars Frolander of Sweden (who was swimming at SMU back in the olden day when I was in college) swam the fly in 52.15 nearly matching his winning time of 52.00 from 2000.

Still, GWG is very much the future of American sprinting and should be in the mix for individual medals in London. Berns and Walters should also be very competative in the 200 at least. Its a little early but Hersey should certainly qualify in multiple events and be a favorite in the 200 Fly. Piersol, despite his tenure keeps improving and if he persists I can’t imagine him not being at least in the medals in the 100 in London if he wished to persist. Oh, and let’s not forget a futer Texas Olympian, Jimmy Faigun.

This a somewhat mediocre games (by the our very high standard) but with great promise for the future.