COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Shaine Casas set three records to propel the No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies men’s swimming & diving team to a hefty lead with a score of 412 through the first day of the Art Adamson Invite on Nov. 21 in the Student Rec Natatorium.
Shaine Casas became the fastest teenager of all time in the 200 IM with a time of 1:40.16. Needless to say he set the school record with that time, while also becoming the 10th fastest swimmer of all time in the world. Casas piled on to his historic night setting another school record in the 100 back with his time of 45.57 from the leadoff leg of the 400 medley relay. In the prelims, Casas broke the pool record for the 200 IM in long course meters with a time of 1:58.54.
Mark Theall also had a momentous day achieving the No. 1 time in the country and resetting the school record in the 500 free with a time of 4:12.19. Theall previously held the school record at 4:12.70. Theall also notched a team record in the 500 free in long course meters with a time of 3:52.78.
On the diving board, Victor Povzner placed first in the 3-meter scoring 426.65, while Kurtis Mathews placed second with a score of 396.90. The Canadian freshman has collected three wins so far in his rookie campaign. The Australian senior now holds six top-three finishes on the season.
The men’s team sits in first in each event through the first day and returns for more tomorrow morning with the swimming prelims beginning at 10 a.m.
Top Times On The Day
200 Free Relay – Shaine Casas, Adam Koster, Clayton Bobo, Mike Thibert – 1:17.21*
500 Free – Mark Theall – 4:12.19*
200 IM – Shaine Casas – 1:40.16*
50 Free – Adam Koster – 19.49*
400 Medley Relay – Shaine Casas, Benjamin Walker, Adam Koster, Mark Theall – 3:06.68*
First place finishes are marked with *
Quotes
Men’s Swimming Head Coach Jay Holmes
On the huge performances in day one…
“It was a good day in the fact that we did get all these records done, which is always fun. We’re out to a good start to move on into the meet here. We had a lot of good swims and a lot of good things to be excited about tomorrow.”
On what today’s results means going forward…
“We’ve got a long ways to go. As far as the competition wise, this is probably the halfway point of our year. Doing this meet is always a good thing. Obviously I’m excited for what our guys are doing, but we have a lot of things that we still haven’t hit on all cylinders yet. We have a number here that we still think can be a lot better than what they did today. So, we’re here tomorrow as we work on getting everybody all dialed up and get ready to go. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Head Diving Coach Jay Lerew
On the one-two finish from Victor Povzner and Kurtis Mathews…
“Victor [Povzner] did a great job. He’s coming along really well. He’s a freshman doing all these huge dives. Kurtis [Mathews] is a little off, but he’s still there. He’s got major jet lag, because he’s been in Malaysia for the past 10 days. He’s been stressing a little bit, but he did fine.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics