SINGAPORE - Joseph Schooling clinched a bronze medal in the men's 50-yard freestyle at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Centre in Austin on Friday morning (Singapore time).
The 22-year-old Singaporean clocked 19.36sec, and finished behind his University of Texas (UT) team-mates Tate Jackson (18.95) and Brett Ringgold (19.07), in his first individual event in this meet, which is conducted in a 25-yard pool. He was first to turn in the two-lap race at 9.17sec, but was overtaken in the return leg by the duo.
Schooling was also third in the heats (19.51), behind Jackson (18.99) and Ringgold (19.33). The Singaporean did not make the "A" cut of 19.05 for this event for the March 21-24 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) meet in Minneapolis, but cleared the "B" timing of 20.19.
In 2017, the UT senior won this event at the same meet in 18.76sec, and clinched a bronze in the NCAA meet in 18.77.
The 50-yd free was Schooling's second event in the Big 12 meet, after he helped the Texas Longhorns win the men's 200-yd medley relay on Thursday morning. He will compete in the 100-yd butterfly on Saturday and the 200-yd fly on the last day of the meet on Sunday.
