COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The No. 9 Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team celebrated Senior Day with a double-dual sweep of Vanderbilt and the University of Houston Saturday afternoon at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Natatorium.
In the their final tune-up before the Southeastern Championships, the Aggies grabbed victories in 13 of the 14 races, while also sweeping both diving events for the first time this year. Texas A&M defeated Vanderbilt 162-91 and Houston 175-116 to improve to 8-1 in dual meet action.
The Senior Class of 2019 was honored prior to the competition — Alexandra Buscher (Houston, Texas), McKenna DeBever (Denver, Colo.), Tiffany Futscher(Irving, Texas), Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo (Mexico City, Mexico), Alaïs Kalonji (Rennes, France), Sydney Pickrem (Dunedin, Fla.), and Claire Rasmus (New Orleans, La.).
“Obviously this senior class has won three SEC Championships so far, and having a chance for a fourth is something truly special to see in a sense of what these women have accomplished in a short span.” Texas A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. “Having this double dual against Vanderbilt and Houston, it was good to get some fast swims in before SECs, which is coming up here in the coming weeks. There are some things that we would still like to clean up before we head to Georgia.”
The Aggies opened and closed the meet with relay victories. The foursome of senior McKenna DeBever, junior Victoria Roubique, freshman Emma Carlton and junior Katie Portz combined to win the 400-yard medley relay in 3:43.18 to start the meet, while junior Golf Sapianchai, Carlton, senior Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo and senior Claire Rasmus won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:33.90 to close the day.
Leading the way individually for Texas A&M were DeBever, Carlton, and Rasmus, who all netted a pair of race victories. DeBever was victorious in the 200-yard backstroke (1:59.82), and the 200-yard IM (2:02.79), while Carlton was victorious in the 50-yard freestyle (23.39) and the 100-yard butterfly (54.46), while Rasmus touched the wall first in the 500-yard freestyle (4:53.31), and the 200-yard freestyle (1:48.37). Junior diver Haley Allen placed first in both the three-meter (339.83) and one meter dives (312.83).
Logging solo victories for the Aggies were senior Tiffany Futscher in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:52.92), senior Sydney Pickrem in the 100-yard freestyle (50.66), Roubique in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.29), sophomore Jing Quah in the 200-yard butterfly (1:59.84) and junior Anna Belousova grabbing the only B-Cut of the day in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.69).
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics