Longhorn Nation,
Here's hoping everyone enjoyed their Super Bowl Sunday and had a wonderful Valentine's Day with their significant others, family and friends. While our weather this time of the year can be quite sporadic, our Longhorns' Texas Fight remains spirited and steady. Last week was another good one, filled with competitive fire, triumphs and some memorable record-setting performances. Now it's on to another busy week on the Forty, with Baseball, Men's & Women's Basketball and Softball all taking to the fields and courts on our great campus. Come on out and join us, and let's go Horns! And of course, there's lots of Longhorn road warrior action too, including our Men's Basketball Red River Showdown game in Norman tonight (6 p.m. CT/ESPN2). This will get you amped up for Texas-OU!! Time to take on another week, let's do this!!
Speaking of triumphant victories, our Women's Basketball squad absolutely lit up the Erwin Center on Saturday, charging out of the locker room at halftime to run the No. 12 and Big 12 co-leading Sooners out of the gym in a 78-63 Red River rout! Led by Audrey Warren's career-high 21 points, Coach Schaefer and our Horns outscored OU, 27-6 (yes, you read that right, 27-to-6!!), in the third quarter and 41-25 in the second half en route to our 17th victory. It was an extra special night as it was our Shoot for the Cure game where you saw the team wearing pink, and the fans were provided pink bandanas to raise breast cancer awareness in the Central Texas community. It was a heartwarming opportunity to celebrate the strength and courage of the countless individuals fighting this terrible disease, and what a joy it was having survivors join the team for a pregame rally line. That all came on the heels of a thrilling 61-56 victory over Texas Tech in Lubbock last Wednesday. Our Longhorns are one heck of a team, hitting on all cylinders right now, rising to No. 14 in the rankings, and an absolute blast to watch. We've got an epic matchup brewing for Wednesday night (7 p.m. CT/LHN) in the Erwin Center with No. 6 Iowa State in town, so come on out and cheer on your Longhorns! Y'all were great on Saturday and helped us take down OU, let's pack the Drum and bring the heat again this week! Tickets are only $5, and I promise you'll have a great time and see some awesome basketball!
Coach Flo and Texas Track & Field had quite a weekend, too, with four UT records falling, three at the Tiger Paw Invitational at Clemson and the other at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston. Our All-American and Olympian Jonathan Jones stepped up from his traditional 400m to run an 800m and won with a school-best time of 1:46.93 (previous record: 1:47.82, Tevan Everett, 2009), while Brooke Jaworski eclipsed a 22-year old program record (previous record: 2:04.38, Liz Diaz, 2000) with a victorious 2:04.22 clocking in the women's 800m. In her very first triple jump competition as a Longhorn, freshman Ackelia Smith soared 45-9 (13.94m) to put her name on top of the Texas record books, shattering a 36-year-old school record (previous record: 44.2.5, Terri Turner, 1986) in that event indoors. Meanwhile, breaking the four-minute mile has been a standard for generations, and we had three Horns cross the finish line with sub-fours on Saturday, the fastest being Cruz Gomez, who broke our school record with a 3:57.09 clocking! He took down a mark of 3:57.81 set by current teammate Yusuf Bizimana last season. Our top-ranked Women's squad and No. 3 Men are really heating up as they take dead aim on the Big 12 Indoor Championships that take place next weekend (Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25-26) in Ames! They've accomplished a lot, but have so much more to come!
Also last weekend, Softball opened its season on the road, winning four of five games at the FGCU Kickoff Classic in Fort Myers, Fla. The four victories included a 4-0 shutout of No. 15 Clemson to open what promises to be an exciting 2022 season. Women's Tennis advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, and after falling in that round, closed out the tournament with a 4-2 consolation bracket win over No. 4 Cal. Men's Tennis swept a pair of matches at the Texas Tennis Center — knocking off Rice on Friday (7-0) and UCF on Sunday (4-0) — and heads to Seattle for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships and the round of 16 on Friday.
This Week for our Longhorns
Women's Golf got our week started out already as they opened the 2022 spring season with a strong first day on Monday at the Lamkin Invitational in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Men's Basketball is at OU tonight (6 p.m. CT/ESPN2) and hosts No. 11 Texas Tech (11:30 a.m. CT/ABC) on Saturday. The Men had a tough one at Baylor on Saturday, but held steady with their No. 20 national ranking this week, and we know they'll bounce back in our hotly-contested league. Let's get ready to get up and get out to the Erwin Center early for the Saturday late-morning matinee because we need to rock the house for the Red Raiders! We've got roundball, but it's time for some Baseball and Softball, too! Our preseason No. 1 Baseball team opens with a longtime rival in Rice coming to UFCU Disch-Falk Field for a three-game series Friday-Sunday. We hope you can make it out there, but if not, our friends at LHN and 104.9 FM The Horn have you covered with all three games being broadcast by our network partners. Softball starts its home season at Red and Charline McCombs Field on Wednesday (4 p.m. CT/LHN) before traveling to Florida for one of the nation's premier, and most highly-anticipated tournaments in the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational. And Men's Tennis is off to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship with bracket play among the final 16 teams vying for the title beginning Friday. Track & Field will be fine-tuning for the "Championships Season" by sending our Distance Medley Relay squad to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Invitational to push for a strong NCAA qualifying time. And of course, as I said earlier you can catch our No. 14 Women's Basketball team in another big-time Big 12 matchup versus No. 6 Iowa State on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT/LHN) as we hit the stretch run of games at the historic Erwin Center.
As we continue our celebration of Black History Month, I hope y'all are having a chance to follow along on all of our platforms. We have so many powerful and impactful voices among our student-athletes, past and present, and are so grateful for all they do. Please join us and our entire campus community as we share their stories, honor, pay tribute and celebrate this truly special month.
And in closing, I want to send a big congratulations and emphatic Hook 'Em to our Longhorn for Life Scottie Scheffler who earned his first PGA TOUR victory on Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open. Scottie birdied the third hole of a sudden-death playoff to seal the deal. He joins an illustrious group in the storied history of our Men's Golf program, becoming the 17th Longhorn to claim a PGA TOUR win. Congrats Scottie, we're so proud of you and know this is just the start!
Things are really buzzing on the Forty Acres these days! Students are back on campus in full force, our teams are hard at work, there's sports action aplenty, and we get to cheer them all on alongside the greatest fans in the land! Here's to another great week!!
Hook 'Em Horns,
Chris Del ConteÂ
Chris Del Conte
P.S. — This truly epitomizes our school motto of "What starts here changes the world!" Congratulations Andrew!!
P.S. II — I echo the sentiments of Coach Schaefer, Saturday was awesome and can't wait to see you on Wednesday for Iowa State!
P.S. III – The Longhorn Pep Band is ready to get everyone riled up and raise the roof on Wednesday night at the Erwin Center. Bring your Texas Fight and we'll see you there!
P.S. IV – Pretty awesome … 17-straight years with a Longhorn on a Super Bowl roster, how about that!?
