Torri Huske, Baylor Nelson Lead Run of Top-Ranked Times at Texas Invite
With a full slate of individual events on tap Wednesday evening at the Texas Invitational, swimmers from Stanford, Southern California and the host Longhorns took turns posting the fastest times in the country in their respective events. In eight individual events, six swimmers claimed the top spot in the early-season rankings.
Torri Huske, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter butterfly in 2024, put up the top time in the country in the 100-yard event by a significant margin. Huske went 48.90 to win the event by almost two seconds. Huske was just off her best time of 48.52, which ranks her fourth all-time in the event. Prior to Wednesday, there had been no swimmers under 50 all season, and no other active college swimmer has broken 49. Texas’ Eva Okaro placed second in 50.82, with Stanford’s Gigi Johnson (50.96) and Campbell Stoll (50.98) also under 51.
The Cardinal shined in the 400 IM with the top-three finishes. At the helm was Caroline Bricker, last season’s NCAA winner in the event, who clocked 3:59.70. Bricker was less than 2.5 seconds behind her top time of 3:57.36 from last season. Stanford teammate Lucy Bell, third at the national meet in March, placed second in 4:01.13, while Emily Thompson made it a sweep with a third-place time of 4:04.39. Stanford now has the top four swimmers in the country between Bricker, Bell, Huske (from earlier this month) and Thompson.
USC’s Minna Abraham put up yet another national top-ranked time in the 200 free, becoming the first swimmer to go sub-1:41 this season. Abraham’s time of 1:40.47 surpassed her previous best by nine hundredths, having previously gone 1:40.56 for second place at last season’s NCAA Championships. As for this year’s times, Abraham surpassed the 1:41.27 that Indiana’s Liberty Clark swam earlier in the night in Columbus. Following Abraham in this final were Texas swimmers Nikolett Padar (1:42.10) and Lillie Nesty (1:42.36).
A pair of Texas men climbed the all-time rankings in the men’s 400 IM. Baylor Nelson, who placed seventh in the country last season while competing for Texas A&M, won the event in 3:34.83, making himself the seventh-fastest performer in history while clobbering his previous best of 3:37.46. Not far behind was sophomore teammate Cooper Lucas, who went 3:35.28 to enter history’s all-time top-10. Lucas swam three seconds faster than his previous best time (3:38.18), which helped him to sixth at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Nelson and Lucas have now jumped into position to contend in the event on the national level this year. Their top competition should come from a more decorated teammate, Rex Maurer, who finished a surprising fifth in this event in 3:40.58, just behind Northwestern’s Joshua Staples (3:40.05) and Wisconsin’s Dominik Mark Torek (3:40.21).
The Longhorn men always boast superb depth in the 200 free, and that will continue in 2025-26 despite the graduations of Luke Hobson, Coby Carrozza and Chris Guiliano. Now, Texas adds Jacob Wimberly to the mix. Like Nelson, Wimberly transferred from Texas A&M in the offseason, and he crushed his best time in the event Wednesday.
Entering with a top mark of 1:32.86, Wimberly clocked 1:31.57 in prelims and then 1:31.51 in the evening. That mark was just ahead of times from Ohio State’s Tomas Navikonis (1:31.60) and Georgia’s Tomas Koski (1:31.68) at other invites for tops in the national rankings. Wimberly finished ahead of Texas teammate Camden Taylor (1:32.38), with Wisconsin’s Luukas Vainio third (1:32.84).
Michal Chmielewski placed first in the men’s 100 fly in 45.15, edging out Texas A&M’s Chase Swearingen (45.30) and Texas’ Garrett Gould (45.40).
