AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 14 Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team dropped a 166.5-128.5 decision to No. 7 Texas on Thursday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on the University of Texas campus.
The Aggies, who fell to 2-1 in dual meet action, tallied first- or second-place finishes in 15 of 16 events, but couldn’t catch the quick-starting Longhorns. The Longhorn victory evens the series at 2-2 since the rivalry was resumed in 2013-14.
“We swam really well, but they were better tonight,” Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. “We’re not happy with the score but I’m very happy with the way we swam. We had a lot of season-best swims and I’m very encouraged by the way we raced for this point in the season. We have a lot of places we still need to get better, but we can only control what we’re doing and I’m happy with where we are in our training.”
Grabbing first-place finishes for the Aggies were juniors Lisa Bratton and Béryl Gastaldello, who touched first in the 200-yard backstroke and the 100 butterfly, respectively. Bratton reached the wall in 1:55.82, while Gastaldello finished in 53.70.
Texas A&M grabbed two of the top three spots in five individual races. Junior Bethany Galat was third in the 100 fly (54.55) behind Gastaldello, and she also led a 2-3 Aggie finish (2:00.56) with Bratton (2:00.93) in the 200 IM. Juniors Jorie Caneta (1:01.63) and Franko Jonker (1:01.68) placed second and third in the 100 breaststroke, Gastadello (22.64) and redshirt freshman Raena Eldridge (23.33) finished second and third in the 50 free and senior Ashley McGregor (2:12.97) led a 2-3-4 finish in the 200 breast with Jonker (2:14.22) and sophomore Sydney Pickrem (2:15.01) right behind.
Other Aggies grabbing runner-up finishes were senior Sycerika McMahon in 1,000 free (9:57.05), senior Sarah Gibson in the 200 fly (1:57.64) and the 500 free (4:48.64), and senior Madison Hudkins in the one-meter dive (300.90).
The Aggies were second in both relays with the foursome of Bratton, Caneta, Eldridge and sophomore Lexie Lupton reaching the wall in 1:40.69 in the 200 medley relay and the group of Gastaldello, Gibson, Lupton and Eldridge finishing in 1:32.16 in the 200 free relay.
The Aggies return to action on Saturday when the Texas A&M men’s and women’s teams host Florida in a 2 p.m. dual meet at the Student Recreation Natatorium on the Texas A&M campus.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics