College swimming: UTPB men dominate own meet

The UTPB men’s swim team opened its season in style Saturday, winning nine events to claim the team title at the UTPB Invitational.

Senior Max Jordon and sophomore Brian Schroeder both set meet records to help UTPB score 689 points to overwhelm Austin College and Grand Canyon University at the UTPB pool.

“We swam better than expected in a lot of areas,” UTPB coach Rob Rankin said. “We entered a lot of the kids with some hypothetical times, and they surprised us all day long.

“We pretty well felt like we were going to win this meet, but the guys came out and swam beyond our expectations. That’s a good sign. We want them to go out and race hard every time we hit the water.”

Jordon had a time of 4 minutes, 45.57 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle to set his record. He also won the 1,000 freestyle and anchored the winning 200 medley relay.

“It’s good to get out there and go fast,” he said. “It’s definitely something I needed — a good time at the beginning of the year.”

Jordon said competing at home was a huge advantage.

“It’s immeasurable how much it helps when you get people coming out here to support you,” he said. “You can only do so much on your own. With everyone else out there, it brings it to the next level.”

Schroeder clocked a record 49.43 seconds in the 100 freestyle and also won the 200 individual medley.

“It went great,” he said. “I’ve been working a lot on my stroke lately with our coach. It definitely showed with my meet record.”

Eddie Ortiz also won two events — 100 breaststroke and 200 backstroke — and swam on the medley relay. A third relay member, Florian Rudolph, also won the 200 freestyle, while Michael Haynie won the 50 freestyle.