SINGAPORE - It was not a fast time, but Joseph Schooling did enough to win the 100 yard butterfly at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin on Friday (Feb 23).

The 22-year-old then anchored the University of Texas (UT) team to victory in the men's 200 yard freestyle relay, in the last event of the day on Saturday morning (Singapore time).

The Singaporean clocked 45.10sec to finish ahead of University of Texas (UT) team-mates Brett Ringgold (46.18sec) and Tate Jackson (46.24sec) in the 50 free final. The Singaporean topped the heats in 45.13sec.

Schooling clocked a meet record of 44.06sec at the 2017 Big 12s, and set a personal best of 43.75sec at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2017. But his latter timing was bettered by Caeleb Dressel (43.58sec) for gold.

The reigning Olympic 100m fly champion clocked a faster time in the 100 yard fly earlier this season, when he swam 44.78sec at the Texas Invitational in December 2017. That remains the fastest time in the event this season.

In the 200 yard freestyle relay, Schooling clocked 19.11sec in the final leg, as the Longhorns cruised to victory in 1min 16.90sec. West Virginia University (1:18.30) and Texas Christian University (1:22.55) were second and third respectively.

Schooling is pencilled in for the 200 yard fly on the last day of the four-day meet, which is the last major meet for the Texas Longhorns before the NCAAs, on Saturday (Sunday morning, Singapore time).

He won both the 100 and 200 yard fly NCAA titles in 2015 and 2016, but relinquished both individual titles in his junior year.

The 2018 NCAAs, which takes place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from March 21-24, will be his final outing at the highly competitive college meet.