Texas All-America junior Madisyn Cox notched top-five national times in three events and UT claimed 10 of 16 events as the sixth-ranked Longhorns (5-0) topped No. 14 Texas A&M (4-1) by a 166-134 count Friday evening at A&M’s Student Rec Center Natatorium.
Fourth-year UT head coach Carol Capitani picked up her first win over the Aggies, which also marked the first victory for Texas over A&M since 2011 and the first win in College Station since a 163-137 victory on Nov. 5, 2010.
“It was a total team effort,” Capitani said. “I probably take the most pleasure in watching our growth from year to year and seeing this team stand up and take on big meets, like on our Cal-Stanford trip last year. It gives them confidence.”
Texas A&M opened with a win in the 200-yard medley relay and assumed an 11-6 lead, but Texas took the lead for good after outscoring the Aggies 13-6 in the 1,000 freestyle. Freshman Joanna Evans of The Bahamas pulled away from the rest of the field early in the 1,000 freestyle and cruised to victory in 9 minutes, 47.61 seconds. Freshman Quinn Carrozza of Austin added three-points with her third-place time of 9:57.22.
Cox posted her first win of the night in the 200 freestyle and led a one-two Texas finish at 1:46.52, good for the fourth-fastest time in the nation this season. Freshman Nora McCullagh posted a strong mid-season time of 1:48.72. All-America junior Tasija Karosas nearly cracked the nation’s top-10 in the 100 backstroke and took Texas’ third straight win in 53.74
A&M claimed the 100 breaststroke, but Texas effectively canceled out that result with its one-two finish in the 200 butterfly, where freshman Remedy Rule took the win in 1:59.99. Junior Maggie D’Innocenzo, a transfer from USC, followed in second at 2:00.15.
Sophomore Rebecca Millard swept the sprint freestyle events and edged A&M’s Beryl Gastaldello in the 50 freestyle at 22.77, the nation’s eighth-fastest time this season. Millard returned after the three-meter diving break to win the 100 freestyle at 49.69.
A&M won the three-meter diving event, though Texas all but canceled out the win with its second through fourth-place finishes. Senior Meghan Houston took second place and four points for the Longhorns with her total of 326.33 points. Freshman Meghan O’Brien placed third at 314.63 while classmate Sofia Rauzi took fourth at 293.85. O’Brien added a second-place total of 310.58 on one-meter, where Houston took third at 304.12.
Texas opened up a 109-79 lead on the Aggies after posting a one-two finish in the 200 backstroke, where Carrozza took the win and nine points for the Horns in 1:54.82. Karosas followed closely behind at 1:55.36.
Cox notched her second win of the night and the nation’s No. 4 time in the 200 breaststroke, where she clocked 2:11.21 and held off A&M’s Bethany Galat by three-tenths of a second.
Leading 119-88, Texas yielded the next three events to the Aggies, but the Horns maintained a sizable cushion at 143-121 before the final individual swimming event, the 200 IM.
Cox made a clean sweep of her three events and posted the nation’s second-fastest time (1:58.22) on her way to victory in the 200 IM. A&M’s Galat trailed Cox by only four-tenths of a second heading into the final 50 yards, but Cox out-split Galat by over a second in the event’s freestyle leg and put away a convincing victory.
“I applaud her,” Capitani said. “Madisyn has been unbelievably consistent and just unflappable ever since last year. But I take my hat off to a lot of people who swam different events, like Joanna (Evans) taking on a 200 fly. We had people swimming in their first meet of the year who were coming back from injuries. Our divers were huge and gave us big points tonight. Everybody had something to hang their hat on, and it was just a team effort.”
Texas finished off the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay. The Aggies held a slight lead at the 300-yard mark, but Millard anchored the Longhorns’ relay in 48.38 and out-split her A&M counterpart by well over a second to give Texas the win in 3:20.07.
Texas takes to the road again next weekend when it visits a pair of top-10 foes in North Carolina and North Carolina State.
Texas A&M
The Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team suffered its first dual meet loss in more than two seasons as the No. 14 Aggies dropped a 166-134 decision to the No. 6 Texas Longhorns on Friday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.
The Aggies, who hadn’t lost a dual meet since January of 2013, had their streak of 11 straight home victories snapped, as well as an unbeaten streak of 26 consecutive dual matches. Despite the loss Aggie head coach Steve Bultman was encouraged by the times his swimmers produced and the way they competed.
“I was very pleased by the way we swam – lots of season best, lots of good swims,” Bultman said. “You’re never happy about not getting the victory, but the good swims up and down our lineup were very encouraging. Swimming this fast at this time of the season will help us in two weeks when we host the Art Adamson Invitational.”
The Aggies opened the meet with a strong victory in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome of sophomore Lisa Bratton, junior Sycerika McMahon, sophomore Beryl Gastaldello and freshman Lexie Lupton posted a winning time of 1:40.47.
The Aggies’ lone double winner of the night was junior diver Madison Hudkins, who swept the one- and three-meter dives. Hudkins won the one-meter with a score of 322.27 and the three-meter with a 349.50 point total.
“Madi did a great job and that’s really good to see,” Bultman said. “She’s a tremendous competitor.”
Other Aggies with top performances were sophomore Bethany Galat with a win in the 100 breast (1:01.31) and runner-up finishes in the 200 IM (1:59.69) and the 200 breast (2:11.51); junior Sarah Gibson with a win in the 500 free (4:47.75) and a second-place effort in the 1,000 free (9:51.58); and Gastaldello with a win in the 100 butterfly and second-place finishes in the 50 free (22.83) and 100 free (50.01).
The Aggies closed out the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 free relay with the foursome of senior Meredith Oliver, sophomore Kristin Malone, Gibson and Lupton touching in a time of 3:21.49.
