The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team continue their perfect 4-0 win streak, taking out the second ranked Longhorns 169-131 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Friday.
The Aggies had several great swims throughout the night winning 11 of the 16 events. "I'm very pleased by the win today," says head coach Steve Bultman. "We had great racing by the girls and several really close races; races where you had to check the board to know who won. Thankfully we got our fingertips on the wall before they did."
One of these close swims came from freshman Lisa Bratton. Bratton took the 200 backstroke from the Longhorns with a 1:54.92 leaving a .05 margin between first and second. Another close race came from freshman Béryl Gastaldello who took first in the 100 butterfly with a 53.81 - .07 seconds ahead of the Longhorn runner-up. Gastaldello also took first in the 100 back going 54.18.
Other great performances came from senior Sarah Henry. Henry took first in both the 1,000 and 500 freestyle events with come-from-behind wins going 9:43.35 and 4:47.21. Senior Sammie Bosma also swam well. She started off the meet as the anchor for the winning 200 medley relay with a split of 22.20. Bosma also took first in both the 50 and 100 free with a 22.82 and 49.71. She finished off serving as the lead-off leg of the 400 free relay which put the nail in the coffin for the Longhorns. Bosma's 100-yard split was 50.08. Sophomore Sycerika McMahon had a great race in the 200 breaststroke taking first with a time of 2:12.25.
The divers also brought in some points from the boards. On the 1-meter springboards, sophomore Madison Hudkins took first against the Longhorn's two NCAA finalists with a score of 306.53 following an accident during warm-up. While practicing, Hudkins slipped on the board while in mid-air and ended up landing back-first on the board. "Madison is tough," said dive coach Jay Lerew, "she wasn't going to let that accident effect her. She got up and went back to the boards for the win." Hudkins took second in the 3-meter competition with a score of 322.13. Sophomore Destine'e O'Neal also had a great run tonight earning a NCAA zone qualifying score of 279.90 on the 1-meter.
"I am very happy with how our girls dove tonight," said Lerew. "We had some good competition - two NCAA finalists - and Madison took first against them on the 1-meter. We have some work to do on the 3-meter but we still did well. Now we need to get back to training because we have to take on five olympians at the Art Adamson Invitational in two weeks."
"All around, this was a great meet. We had a great team effort in the pool and on the boards," said Bultman.
The women will have short break before their next competition at the annual Art Adamson Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M, on November 20-22 at the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium.
Texas collected five individual victories, including a pair from All-America sophomore Madisyn Cox, but No. 9 Texas A&M (3-1) emerged with a 169-131 win over the second-ranked Longhorns (5-1) Friday evening at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas A&M claimed the meet’s opening two events, the 200-yard medley relay and the 1000 freestyle, before Cox scored the Horns’ first win. The Lubbock native claimed the 200 freestyle in 1 minute, 47.61 seconds.
UT senior Gretchen Jaques, the national leader in the 100 breaststroke, continued her season-long dominance of the event and won in 1:00.72, while sophomore Jordan Surhoff took fourth in 1:03.44.
A&M took a 19-point lead into the next event but Texas cut its deficit to six points following its performance in the 200 butterfly. Senior Kelsey LeNeave claimed the win in 1:58.88 while senior Kaitlin Pawlowicz, after a short layoff from the 1000 freestyle, took second in the 200 fly at 2:01.06. Senior Skylar Smith added three key third-place points at 2:03.64.
A&M captured the 50 freestyle, though second- and third-place finishes from Texas limited the Aggies’ gains. Freshman Rebecca Millard took second at 23.29 while sophomore Brynne Wong placed third at 23.37.
Junior Meghan Houston led the Horns in the one-meter diving event with her second-place total of 303.53 points. All-America senior Emma Ivory-Ganja placed third with 302.85 points. Millard led the Horns in the 100 free by taking second at 50.14, while Karosas led Texas in the 200 backstroke at 1:54.97, a fraction of a second behind top finisher Lisa Bratton of Texas A&M.
Jaques returned to post Texas’ top finish in the 200 breaststroke at 2:14.50 for second place. Pawlowicz put in another strong performance despite a rigorous workload and took second in the 500 freestyle at 4:50.21, while Cox followed in third at 4:50.77. Ivory-Ganja returned to post a convincing win on the three-meter board and totaled 347.40 points to grab the victory. Houston added a fourth-place total of 285.15 points.
Cox, an All-American as a true freshman in the 200 IM, notched her second win of the night in that event at 1:59.64. Texas wrapped the meet with its second-place mark of 3:21.65 in the 400 freestyle relay.
The Texas divers resume competition in two weeks at the UT Diving Invitational at the Texas Swimming Center. The UT swimmers wrap the fall next month at the annual Texas Invitational set for Dec. 4-6.
POST-MEET COMMENTS
Texas head coach Carol Capitani
We had some great performances that might be overshadowed by the loss. Kaitlin Pawlowicz stood up and raced, and Madisyn (Cox) stood up and raced. The same goes for Tasija (Karosas) and people like Rebecca Baxley and Kelsey LeNeave. A lot of people on our team had season-best times, and that’s all we’re looking for. Texas A&M is deep, and there’s a reason they were fourth in the country (at the NCAA Championships) last year. We were slowly trying to pick away at the lead and we tried to get closer. It’s a little disheartening. I think the most disappointing thing is just losing some real close races and we didn’t get our hands on the wall first. It’s not unacceptable. It’s just something they need to learn. I think going into the Texas Invite we need to realize that every little thing counts…our finishes and turns and just doing every little thing right. We’ll need to be almost perfect to have the kind of season we want to have.
