Texas Invitational: Jillian Cox Enters All-Time Top-10 in 500 Freestyle
While Rex Maurer stole the show in the 500 freestyle Wednesday evening at the Texas Invite, another Longhorn put on a show in the women’s equivalent event while entering the all-time top-10 in the event.
Jillian Cox waited one year to begin her collegiate career as she pursued a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, only to finish third in the 400 and 800-meter free at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Now, during her first year at the University of Texas, Cox has produced a series of incredible times in the 500-yard race, most recently a time of 4:30.68.
That crushed her previous best time of 4:34.41, which she swam earlier this month when Texas raced Indiana. Entering college, Cox had never been quicker than 4:36.93. Now, Cox is the seventh-fastest swimmer in history, behind the decorated group of Katie Ledecky, Summer McIntosh, Katie Grimes, Bella Sims, Leah Smith, Claire Weinstein and Katie Hoff. All of those swimmers have captured Olympic medals in their respective careers.
Also swimming a best time was Stanford’s Aurora Roghair, who previously finished fourth in the event at the NCAA Championships in March. Roghair came in at 4:31.63, two-and-a-half seconds under her previous best time, and she moved to No. 11 all-time in the event. Roghair is now No. 3 in the national rankings for this college season behind Cox and Sims (4:31.06). Notably, Cox and Roghair both swam much quicker than the 4:32.47 that Sims swam to win last year’s NCAA title.
Kate Hurst, another Texas freshman, finished third in 4:37.59, followed by Wisconsin’s Abby Carlson (4:37.62), Texas’ Erin Gemmell (4:28.28) and Stanford’s Kayla Wilson (4:38.82).
The Longhorn women ended up with wins in every event Wednesday evening, with every victory other than the 500 free coming at the expense of Torri Huske, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter butterfly who is returning to college swimming this season after a redshirt year. Longhorn fifth-year swimmer Emma Sticklen overtook Huske to win a tight 200 IM, 1:52.75 to 1:52.89, with the Cardinal’s Caroline Bricker third (1:54.17)
Grace Cooper tied Huske atop the 50 free in 21.81, followed by USC’s Vasilissa Buinaia (21.88).
Sticklen, Cooper, Abby Arens and Ava Longi combined for a strong time of 1:25.92 to win the 200 free relay, beating Stanford by one-and-a-half seconds. Sticklen swam a strong leadoff time of 21.50, but Huske was even better at 21.38, quicker than any swimmer in the country thus far outside of Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh and Tennessee’s Camille Spink.
In the 400 medley relay, the team of Emma Kern, Arens, Sticklen and Gemmel clocked 3:27.12 to take the win, eight tenths clear of the Texas B-team. Sticklen clocked 49.44 on butterfly, much quicker than Huske’s 50.59, while Ava Longi clocked 47.02 bringing the Texas B-team home.