Schooling all set for assault on NCAA C’ships

SINGAPORE - Another day, and another record for Joseph Schooling.

Singapore’s Olympic champion brought the curtain down on a successful Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, Texas, by snaring his third record in three days.

After breaking the Conference 50-yard freestyle record on Thursday, and then the 100-yard butterfly meet record on Friday, the University of Texas undergraduate topped it off with a relay medal with his Texas Longhorns teammates in the 400-yard freestyle relay on Saturday (Sunday, Singapore time)

Swimming in the first leg of the relay, which was the final event of the four-day meet, the 21-year-old Schooling clocked 42.24sec in his split to help his team set a new meet record of 2min 48.66sec.

The time was 0.51sec faster than the existing record of 2:49.17 which was set in 2009.

The Big 12 Conference comprises 10 schools from five states in the US and has a short-course yard (25-yard laps) format.

Schooling’s performances at the Big 12 meet will augur well for the University of texas as the Longhorns set their sights on next month’s NCAA Championships.

At last year’s NCAA Championships, Schooling played a pivotal role in his University’s capture of the men’s crown for the 12th time.

He won two individual titles (100-yard and 200-yard butterfly) in record-breaking times, and helped his university to win the 200 and 800-yard freestyle relays and the 400-yard medley relay. He was named co-Swimmer of the Championships with two other swimmers.

The University of Texas are gunning for their third consecutive men’s title this year.

Said Schooling: “I think I had a good meet overall. There were a couple of things that I tried in this meet in preparation for NCAAs. From here, I will sit down with Eddie (UT head coach Eddie Reese) to discuss on how to approach the NCAAs.”

Schooling also acknowledged the help he recently received from Singapore Swimming Association high performance director Sonya Porter, sports biomechanist Ryan Hodierne and sports nutritonist Richard Swinbourne, who are both from the Singapore Sports Institute. 
He said: “I had Sonya, Ryan and Rico (Swinbourne) visit me in Austin early in the month and they spent a couple of days with me, planning a comprehensive plan for the year together with Eddie.

“What we have done so far is to work on the small goals at the bottom. When all these are taken care, everything at the top will fall in nicely.

“I do feel that is working out really well for me, from the times I clocked in this meet.

“So I looking forward to see what I can achieve next month.”