Cox rallies to win bronze in medley

UT’s Schooling also competes at world swimming event.

Former Texas swimmer Madisyn Cox surged onto the podium with a strong finish and Longhorns senior Joseph Schooling claimed fifth in his first race at the FINA World Championships on Monday in Budapest, Hungary.

After falling all the way to seventh following the butterfly and backstroke legs of the 200-meter individual medley, Cox completed one of her trademark comebacks to reach the medal stand. She remained in sixth after the backstroke, then blazed through the final 50 meters of the freestyle in 30.45 seconds to edge U.S. teammate Melanie Margalis for the bronze by 11 hundredths of a second.

Cox’s time was 2 minutes, 9.71 seconds. She claimed the first long-course World Championships medal for a UT women’s swimmer since 2013, when Karlee Bispo helped Team USA win gold in the 4x200 freestyle. Host-nation favorite Katinka Hosszu won the race in 2:07.00.

In the men’s 50-meter butterfly, Schooling placed fifth with a time of 22.95. Schooling, who won the first gold medal ever for his nation of Singapore in the 100 fly at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, will compete next in the 100 free starting Wednesday.

Texas junior Townley Haas earned a spot in the 200 freestyle finals by qualifying fourth in Monday’s semifinals with a time of 1:45.43. He’ll compete in Tuesday’s finals.

Baseball team signs two: Texas’ baseball team added two players to its 2018 recruiting class Sunday when Kerrville Tivy second baseman Lance Ford and South Carolina outfielder/pitcher Chase Roberts committed to the Longhorns.

Ford earned Class 5A allstate honors this spring; Roberts hit .338 with 21 RBIs and went 5-1 with a 0.88 ERA. Roberts had committed to Clemson but reopened his recruitment earlier this summer.

Both can sign with Texas on Nov. 8.

Future Horn wins bronze: Tripp Piperi, who’ll enroll at Texas this fall, won bronze in the shot put Monday at the Pan American Junior Championships in Peru.

Piperi, from The Woodlands, finished third with a toss of 66 feet, 5.75 inches. He was in second place after two rounds, then was bumped to third after his third throw. He posted his longest distance in the fourth round and finished 6 centimeters out of second place.

Piperi ranked fifth in the world this year in the junior shot put.