On Tuesday, Texas Football athletes who are eligible for the 2015 NFL Draft worked out for teams. You can see a photo gallery of the day here. Then on Wednesday, Coach Strong and his team started spring practice. You can watch Coach Strong's press conference on spring practice here.
BEYOND ATHLETICS
As No. 1 men's swimming begins to compete for a National Championship, let's take a look at what they've accomplished outside the water. Current men's swimming and diving students are pursuing many different majors including Accounting, Education, Neurobiology, Corporate Communication, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Economics and more. All-American diver Cory Bowersox was named a Capital One Academic All-American in 2014.
Here's men's swimming academic success by the numbers.
- 3.1 Fall 2014 semester team GPA
- 14 student-athletes were named to the 2014 Academic All-Big 12 Team, the most in the conference
- More than half the team earned a spot on the Fall 2014 Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll
COMPETING FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
No. 1 men's swimming and diving began competition today at the NCAA Championships at Iowa. Texas holds more NCAA team titles (10) and NCAA top-two finishes (21) than any other men's swimming and diving program under 37th-year head coach Eddie Reese. Watch a feature from LHN on sophomore Jack Conger, who holds the American record in the men's 200-yard butterfly, on espn.go.com.You can follow the results of the meet here. Good luck!
Women's swimming and diving placed seventh at the NCAA Championship last Saturday to earn their fifth straight top-10 NCAA Championship finish. It is also our top NCAA showing since 2011. Read the full results here.
The 88th annual Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays began yesterday and will continue through Saturday, March 28 at Mike A. Myers Stadium. This year's competition features 699 high schools, 214 collegiate teams and 218 invitational athletes. All together, more than 7,000 athletes from 34 states and nine countries are expected to compete through Saturday. This year, two events are renamed in honor of two of the most decorated student-athletes in Texas history: Carlette Guidry and Sanya Richards-Ross. The two events are the 'Carlette Guidry - University/College Women's 4x100-Meter Relay' and the 'Sanya Richards-Ross – University Women's (Invitational) 4x400-Meter Relay.' Read more here.
Admission to the Texas Relays is free today. Olympic silver medalist and Texas alumnus Leo Manzano runs tonight at 7 p.m. The full schedule and ticket information is available here. You can also find information about Saturday's Fan Fest events, including autograph sessions from some of Texas Relays greatest athletes and Olympians, here.
No. 5 seed women's basketball will face No. 1 seed UConn in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Albany Regional Semifinals on Saturday at 11 a.m. Central. We defeated No. 4 seed California on Sunday to advance to the NCAA 'Sweet 16' for the first time since 2004. You can catch the game on ESPN. More information here. Stay tuned about information on women's basketball season tickets for the 2015-16 season in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, No. 3 men's golf won their third-straight tournament at Linger Longer. Sophomore Beau Hossler finished second for this third-straight tournament top-two finish. Full results available here. Men's golf will compete next on April 4-5 at the Augusta Collegiate Invitational at the Forest Hills Golf Club in August, Ga.
Women's golf finished in second place yesterday in Hawaii at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic at the Kapalua Golf Club Bay Course. More here. This is the second-straight tournament women's golf has earned runner-up honors. Senior Bertine Strauss tied for fourth place making this her second-straight tournament to finish in the top-five. Next, women's golf will compete for the UTSA MatchUp at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio on April 5.
A home run from C.J Hinojosa in the eighth inning helped lead No. 10 baseball to a 6-4 victory over Texas State. Read more here. Next up, we're on the road vs. Nebraska for a three-game series March 27-29. The Games on Friday and Sunday are available on Big Ten Network Plus. You can catch Saturday's game on Big Ten Network. We'll be back in Austin Tuesday, March 31 vs. TAMU-Corprus Christi at 6 p.m. Our next three-game home series will be vs. conference rival Oklahoma April 10-12. Get your tickets here. Also, learn how you can experience the action at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in our new Dugout Suite. For more details or to reserve, you can contact the Texas Athletics sales team at 512-471-3333.
Softball's 2-1 victory over UTSA in the opening game of a doubleheader on Tuesday, marked the 750th career win for Texas head coach Connie Clark and the Texas Softball program. With a 3-2 win in the nightcap, we won both ends of the doubleheader over the Roadrunners by walk-offs, marking the first time that had been done by UT since 2003. Read more here. We are on the road this weekend for a three-game series vs. No. 22 Kansas over March 27-29. We'll be back in Austin on April 4 vs. Texas State at 1 p.m. Ticket information is available here. Softball will also host a three-game series vs. Oklahoma April 10-12. Full schedule and tickets here.
After an impressive season so far, men's tennis' Søren Hess-Olesen moved up to No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings. Men's tennis has two away matches this weekend to start Big 12 play: March 27 at Oklahoma State and March 29 and Oklahoma.
Women's tennis had a win Sunday over Texas Tech, 4-2. Next up is March 27 at Iowa State and March 29 and West Virginia. Good luck to both our tennis teams this weekend!
Great work by our student-athletes, and good luck as we continue to compete to Light the Tower.
COMMIT TO TEXAS
It's been more than weeks since we started the 2015 Texas Football season ticket campaign, and many of our fans have committed to Texas Athletics and our more than 500 student-athletes.
If you are ready to commit, you can find more information on football renewals and new orders at TexasSports.com/FootballTickets. For questions, you can contact your service representative on the Texas Athletics service team at 512-232-4422. If you are interested in a new order, you can reach out to the Texas Athletics sales team at 512-471-3333. Our sales and service representatives are available to walk you through the process and answer any questions. You can also see answers to some common questions here.
Resale Policy
As mentioned, we have several changes for the 2015 football season. This week, I'll review the new ticket resale policy.
The new Texas Athletics resale policy was put in place to protect the value of our loyal fans' season tickets and preserve home field advantage for our student-athletes. When Texas Football takes the field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, we want to greet them with a sea of burnt orange.
Several groups are allowed to purchase tickets at a discounted rate. This includes season tickets where the donation level is below the current market value for seat contribution (or grandfathered tickets) and UT faculty-staff, student, letterwinner, young alumni and complimentary tickets. Unfortunately, we noticed some of these discounted tickets were being sold on the secondary market, many times to an opposing team's fans. This puts someone wearing blue or purple or green in a premium seat, taking this seating opportunity away from a loyal Texas supporter.
Those who purchase tickets at a discounted rate are not eligible to sell their tickets on the secondary market. If you wish to have the option to sell your season tickets on StubHub, our official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace, you can be eligible to do so if you pay the full seat cost and seat contribution.
If you can't use your tickets to a game, check with your personal service consultant to see about donating your tickets to one of our partnering charitable organizations. These will provide access to athletics events to active military personnel, veterans, Neighborhood Longhorns program participants and other members of the community.
Read more about the ticket resale policy here.
OTHER
On Tuesday, rowing dedicated a boat to Tina Bonci -- former Associate Athletics Director, Co-Director of Sports Medicine – who passed away a little over a year ago. You can see a few photos of this great tribute on the Texas Rowing facebook page here.
Until next time – Hook 'em, Horns!
Steve Patterson
Men's Athletics Director
