Longhorn Nation,
Well folks, WE DID IT AGAIN! It came down to the wire, literally. I must admit I was on the edge of my seat, sweating out every point late Saturday night as our Women’s Track and Field squad put on a final surge of Texas Fight at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene to get us across the finish line. And when the number crunchers frantically tallied in our tie for 10th-place NCAA finish as well as those of the two programs on our heels (Stanford & USC), it was confirmed — the LEARFIELD DIRECTORS’ CUP WAS CLINCHED and will remain right here where it belongs on the Forty Acres! What a breathtaking and heart pumping way to cap off another fantastic year across all sports. Now it’s not officially official as we’re awaiting the final results that will come from our friends at NACDA later this month at the conclusion of baseball, but rest assured nobody can catch us now. Your Longhorns have claimed The Cup as the nation’s premier all-sports athletic program for the second-straight year and fourth time in five years (how about that for absolute dominance!). YES, we are the champions, AGAIN!
That SPECTACULAR TROPHY will be delivered soon enough and look absolutely glorious taking center stage alongside the others in our collection of the Learfield Directors’ Cups inside the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame. It never gets old folks and shines brightly as a beacon of the PRIDE AND WINNING TRADITION of The University of Texas. This year’s Cup will forever be a bold reminder of the history made in our inaugural year as members of the Southeastern Conference. There were the eight SEC crowns (Beach Volleyball’s CCSA Championship made it nine conference titles), thrilling National Championships in Softball and Men’s Swimming and Diving, dramatic NCAA and CFP Final Four Tourney runs for Football, Women’s Basketball and Men’s Tennis, and top-three finishes from Rowing and Women’s Swimming and Diving that made it SEVEN teams among the nation’s top-three, along with 10 top-five’s and 13 top-10’s. And I’ve got to give credit where credit is due — it all starts with our unbelievable leaders — Chairman Eltife and President Davis — and their incredible support that allows our coaches, student-athletes and staff to do their thing. Longhorn Nation, you’re the absolute best too and have been right by our side helping us all vigorously row the boat in the same direction. When we do that — and keep those BBs in the box — we can accomplish anything under the sun! Y’all know, a United Texas is a reckoning my friends!
And while I’ve got you, here’s hoping everyone had an enjoyable Father’s Day weekend as we cherished the patriarchs in our lives. It was a day to applaud and thank them, and I do want to take a moment and send a shoutout to all of our Longhorn Dads. This week we will recognize and celebrate a very important Juneteenth holiday with our annual participation in the Central Texas Juneteenth Emancipation Parade on Thursday. It makes for another week of gratitude and family time filled with admiration, appreciation, reflection and love.
Speaking of appreciation, we’ve got to give our phenomenal women’s golfer Farah O’Keefe a huge round of applause and emphatic Hook ‘Em, Horns. Talk about WHAT STARTS HERE CHANGES THE WORLD, Farah was en fuego and put that Texas Fight on full display in stampeding all the way to The Women’s Amateur Championship final in Nairn, Scotland last week. Facing an elite field of 144 golfers from 30 countries, she took dead aim and advanced from stroke play through several rounds of match play, including a thrilling semifinal victory that put her in the championship match. Then on a special Father’s Day with her dad by her side, Farah battled through a grueling 36-hole final and came up just short. She left it all on the course and there’s no shame in being the runner-up on the grandest of world amateur stages. Well done my friend, we are very lucky to have you in the Burnt Orange & White.
The same can be said for our Fab Freshman Timo Legout who on Friday was tabbed the ITA Men’s Tennis National Player of the Year (making it three -straight Longhorns to earn that honor to boot). He went 35-3 on the season, 12-0 in conference for our SEC Championship squad and was the nation’s No. 1-ranked singles player this year. Another first-year phenom, Baseball’s Dylan Volantis, was named the NCBWA National Freshman of the Year. Our towering lefty and conference freshman of the year for our SEC Champions tossed 74 strikeouts against just 12 walks in 51 innings this year. He led all rookies nationally in saves (12), while ranking second in ERA (1.94) and batting average allowed (.185). Additionally last week, our sensational student-athlete Marg Van der Wal, the SEC Rower and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, was tabbed a finalist for the CRCA Athlete of the Year award and Softball’s Katie Stewart earned Academic All-America honors for her efforts on and off the field as well. Those are just another in a long line of Longhorn student-athletes that received national recognition this year! We are so proud of all of them and the time and effort our student-athletes commit to be elite in their sports, the classroom and the community.
Can’t get enough of the reminders of the THRILL OF VICTORY Coach White and our Softball program provided us. This recap with Coach White and our National Championship Longhorns will take you back and have you puttin’ those Horns Up. What a fabulous time it was watching our squad dig deep and win big, there was nothing “Weak or Timid” about their Texas Fight at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City! Now that the championship hardware is home in Austin, be sure to get that National Championship gear to add to your collection, too!
Oh, and be sure to grab your copy of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. I know y’all can’t get enough football in the offseason and thumbing through the wealth of information DCTF has provided for generations is an annual ritual for so many in our great state. Our guy COACH SARK’S ON THE COVER and it’s a keeper for sure! You can check out all the behind-the-scenes video from the photo shoot here as well.
So, folks, THAT’S A WRAP. With the Learfield Directors’ Cup clinched and our sports seasons complete, what a perfect time for our final Forty Acres Insider of 2024-25. You’ve got plenty to be oh-so-proud of, so wear your Burnt Orange & White often and keep those Horns Up all the livelong day! We’ll be prepping for the year ahead while our student-athletes put in the work to continue to chase greatness. Y’all get yourself some much-deserved good solid R&R, let your road trips commence, so you’re ready to roll when the action heats up again in August. We’ve got lots of fun on the horizon and we’ll be ready to get revved back up soon enough because our work is not done. Preparations for 2025-26 are underway! See you soon!!
M/W Track and Field put a bow on season at NCAA Outdoor Championship
Coach Flo and our Longhorns took on the best of the best over in TrackTown USA last week at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Our individual highlights included a pair of bronze medal performances. For the women, Nina Ndubuisi led the way with a third-place finish in the shot put on the strength of a personal-best throw of 19.50 meters, that’s over 60 feet y’all! Kody Blackwood paced the men with his third-place showing in the 400-meter hurdles. Both 4×100-meter relays earned points, as the women’s group placed fifth and the men’s team finished eighth in the finals. And kudos to Xavier Butler and Kenondra Davis, who both earned first-team All-America honors in the 200-meter dash with top-seven performances.
Here’s some final nuggets to carry you over this summer!
Before I let you go for the summer, I mentioned quite a few of our outstanding notables from this recently completed 2024-25 academic calendar year. But folks, here’s a few more so that you can puff your chest out at the water cooler around your co-workers at the office and take with you on your family vacations this summer. With our Men’s Swimming and Diving and Softball teams capturing National Championships this season, this marks the FIFTH-STRAIGHT year that the Longhorns have won multiple national titles in the same academic season. Excluding the COVID-shortened year of 2019-20, Texas has now won at least one NCAA team title in 10-STRAIGHT seasons! Over the last five years, the Longhorns have won 13 NCAA team championships by eight different programs, while seven additional programs have either made the Final Four OR finished in the top three at the NCAA Championships. We sponsor 21 intercollegiate programs here on the Forty Acres, and 15 OF THOSE 21 PROGRAMS have now claimed a National Championship. WOW! We qualified 20 of our 21 NCAA eligible sports for their respective NCAA Championship events. Texas was the ONLY SCHOOL IN NCAA DIVISION I to have its Football, either Men’s or Women’s Basketball, and either Baseball or Softball programs reach the Final Four of their NCAA Tournaments this season!
The Longhorns have captured 68 all-time National Championships (64 NCAA titles). And how about a few more nuggets. Our 10 top-five performances in 2024-25 marked a tie for the second-most in school history, trailing only the 12 recorded in 2021-22. And our 13 top-10 efforts also tied for the second-most in school history, just one shy of the record 14 in 2021-22. We have recorded a total of 49 top-five NCAA team finishes and 65 top-10 NCAA team finishes during the last five years.
Hook ‘Em Horns,
Chris Del Conte
P.S. — Glad we’ll be able to be a part of Coach Corso’s final GameDay show. He’s been an institution for generations and is the absolute best!
P.S. — Hope all Longhorn Dads had a great Father’s Day!
P.S. — The boys are hard at work!
P.S. — Toast of the Town!
P.S. — What Starts Here!
HEADLINES:
Former Longhorns Raynard Davis, Sharon Neugebauer-Shepard earn spots in San Antonio ISD Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2025
Women’s Golf’s O’Keefe advances to final at The Women’s Amateur Championship
Baseball’s Volantis, Galvan collect ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors
Men’s Basketball to host Virginia in 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge
Women’s Basketball to host North Carolina in ACC/SEC Challenge
Baseball’s Volantis, Galvan earn spots on NCBWA All-America Teams
Additional kickoff time, TV window assignments announced for Football
ESPN’s College GameDay coming to Football’s opener at Ohio State
Baseball’s Rodriguez, Volantis headline Perfect Game Freshman All-Americans
Men’s Golf quartet named to PING All-Central Region Team
Baseball lands four on ABCA/Rawlings All-Region teams
Baseball’s Volantis tabbed Freshman All-American
Top-3 finishes
Top-5s
Top-10s
Conference Championships (
SEC)
Thursday, August 21st
Buell Stadium
M North, M South, & M West pic.twitter.com/qjhEhEjHJv
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