As Texas ended its Big 12 swimming and diving reign on Saturday, the West Virginia Mountaineers showed potential to become the new top program in the years to come.
The Longhorns won both championships for the 12th consecutive season, with the women's team scoring 2,092 points and the men's team scoring 1,979 points. This is Texas State's 22nd women's title and ends a 28-year history for the men's team. During their time in the Big 12, the Longhorns never lost a men's swimming and diving conference championship.
Mylan Park's aquatic center will continue to have a Texas influence long after it leaves the Big 12 in 2024. After this year's championships, Texas holds Aquatic Center records in every major event except the 1,000-yard freestyle, which it couldn't swim. This year's tournament.
It took the Mountaineers quite a while to regain their pool record, but they started the year by setting several program records. WVU topped three games in the fifth day alone.
Graduate student Ivan Puskovich took second in the men's 1,650 freestyle with a time of 15 minutes, 15.34 seconds. The swim broke the WVU record by 4.7 seconds, even though it was 16.63 seconds slower than Texas' first-place finisher Alec Enyeart.
The men's 400-meter freestyle relay team also set a team record with a time of 2:53.95, despite finishing fourth out of five in this event. The relay team consists of seniors Danny Berlitz and Roanoke Shark and juniors Braden Osborne and Connor McBeth.
But perhaps the most promising record-breaking performance on Saturday was that of Mia Cheatwood in the women's 200m breaststroke. Cheatwood, a sophomore, beat her own record she set in Tuesday's time trial with a time of 2:09.13.
Cheatwood finished third at the Big 12 Championship, capping off a great week that saw him reach three individual finals. She completed the 100 breaststroke preliminaries on Friday in 1:00.08, setting a new team record for her.
Fellow sophomores Ada Schwabinska and Gabriela Martin de la Torre will accompany Cheatwood as the young core of the women's swimmers. Although neither swimmer made the finals during the tournament, all show signs of her promising future at WVU.
However, WVU is not without strong upperclassmen on its women's team. Of the two climbers who did not have Mia Cheatwood named as a finalist in this week's women's event, one was senior diver Sarah Haggerty in the platform final on Friday, and the other was junior Miranda on Saturday. It was Kurtley.
Kirtley placed fifth in the women's 1,650 freestyle on Saturday with a time of 16:41.93. Kirtley shaved 17.64 seconds off her qualifying time, but was still 5.04 seconds short of her personal best. Either way, Kirtley's performance in distance swimming bodes well for the near future of WVU swimming and diving.
It was the men's diving team that showed promise on Saturday. In the boys podium final, freshman Owen Recker scored 336.9 points to place seventh, followed closely by junior Glen Elorriaga in eighth place with 334.8 points.
Rounding out West Virginia's finalists on Saturday were senior Justin Himes, who took fourth place for the second time in the backstroke by completing the 200 meters in 1:44.64; Berlitz was disqualified in the breaststroke and the women's 400m freestyle. The relay team placed 8th.
Texas won all but one of Saturday's 12 events, the other being the women's 3-meter, won by Kansas diver Lai Shiyun. Rye joins BYU's Brad Prolo and Jordan Tiffany and WVU's Berlitz as the only non-Longhorns to take first place in the event this week.
Which Mountaineers will compete in the March 20 NCAA Championships will remain unknown until after the NCAA Last Chance Meet in Morgantown on March 3. The event begins at 10 a.m. ET at Mylan Park Aquatic Center.
Big 12 Championship Final Team Standings
Women's team standings
1. Texas – 2,092
2. Houston – 1,266.5
3. TCU – 1,215.5
4. Cincinnati – 918.5
5.BYU – 771.5
6.WVU – 699
7. Kansas – 647.5
8. Iowa – 529
Men's team standings
1. Texas – 1,979
2. TCU – 1,430
3.BYU – 1,402
4th Cincinnati – 1,285.5
5. West Virginia – 1,138.5
