It was a record-breaking weekend for the Wisconsin swim team at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas.
Wisconsin senior Scott Rice broke the school record for the 200-yard butterfly in the preliminaries Saturday morning, and then posted a 1:43.73 in the finals later in the day to break his own record.
Scotty put together one of the best races I've seen from a UW swimmer in my time here,"" head coach Eric Hansen said. ""He's talented and he's worked hard, and has set himself up to be very successful at the end of the season.""
In addition to Rice, junior Phil Davies broke his own record Saturday in the 100-yard freestyle. Davies said his goal before the Invitational was to come in under 40 seconds in the event. Davies finished with a school-best 43.50 in the preliminaries to break UW senior Kyle Sorensen's record.
""It was a long meet, and I came out a little slower in the finals, but it was a great race for me,"" Davies said.
Other members of the men's team had individual success as well in Texas. Senior Mike Hopkins swam a personal-best time of 1:44.78 in the 200-yard backstroke final. His time is good enough to put him in consideration for the NCAA Championships in the event.
Davies, Sorensen, sophomore Conner Andrews and freshman Wes Lagerhausen were on the men's 400-yard freestyle relay team that came in fourth overall with a time of 2:55.99.
""Our relay was great, we came out two seconds faster than we were at this meet last year,"" Davies said. ""It was just a great meet for everybody.
The women's team also did well, leaving Austin with four new school and Big Ten records to their name. Freshman Ashley Wanland was part of all four record-breaking performances.
Wanland, a three-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier, broke the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke by almost half a second in the preliminaries on Friday. She then shaved even more off her time in the finals and finished the event with a time of 1:00.07, the new UW record.
Though Wanland said the pace of the race was faster than she expected and she made some mistakes, overall she was happy with her performance and her time.
""It's a great feeling, no doubt,"" she said. ""This meet has been great for a lot of us.""
Wanland, along with teammates sophomore Maggie Meyer, senior Christine Zwiegers and freshman Beckie Thompson, set a Big Ten record in the preliminaries of the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:38.00. The record only stood for a short time because the team broke it by nine-hundredths of a second in the final of the event.
Thompson also broke a school record in the 50-yard freestyle Thursday.
""The fact that Beckie Thompson has been part of three Big Ten records and Ashley Wanland has been part of two of them is something that really speaks for itself,"" said Hansen. ""I've really been impressed with how our freshmen have come out and competed.""
Hansen called the meet ""electric"" and ""one we'll all remember.""
""This is a great group of kids, a hard-working group of kids, and this sets us up well to use the momentum from this meet in our training in December and January,"" he said.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
