Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving faced a rocky task against No. 6 Tennessee, but the Aggies managed to topple the Lady Volunteers 169-131 at the Rec Center Natatorium on Friday, Oct. 27.
Beginning the day, the A&M 200-yard medley relay consisting of freshman Miranda Grana, senior Bobbi Kennett, senior Olivia Theall and senior Chloe Stepanek finished in second place with a time of one minute and 40.56 seconds. The 400 freestyle relay with teammates freshman Katie Walker, Kennett, freshman Hannah O’Leary and Theall combined for a time of 3:24.98, placing second.
The first ranked opponent the Aggies have faced this season at home, Tennessee last faced A&M in College Station during the 2014-15 season, with the Lady Volunteers falling 177.5-110.5.
“It was a really good win against sixth-ranked Tennessee,” coach Steve Bultman said. “Obviously, they were missing some people that raced at Pan Ams, but we were missing two women as well.”
Stepanek had a notable day with two first place finishes in the 100 freestyle, finishing in50.56, and 200 freestyle, coming in1:48.57, along with a third place finish in the 50 freestyle in 23.44 to total 21 points.
Grana also impressed, placing first in the 100 backstroke in 54.13 and 200 backstroke in 1:56.88, finishing the afternoon with 19 points.
“They are a good team, but we really stepped up,” Bultman said. “There were a bunch of races that I thought would be pretty close and we ended up handling things well, so it was exciting. I was really pleased with our distance group and our backstrokers stepped up as well.”
Theall continued to contribute, finishing in first in the 100 butterfly in 53.67 and 200 butterfly in 1:58.41.
In the 1000 freestyle, Hayden Miller finished atop in the standings with a 9:58.03 time followed by a second place finish by Abby Grottlein 10:03.89 and third place finish from Rachel Love in 10:05.07.
Payton Props finished third in the diving 1-meter with a score of 288.90 while finishing second in the 3-meter with a score of 273.68.
Up next for the Aggies is a home meet against Georgia Tech and No. 2 Texas on Friday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m. For more information follow @AggieSwimDive on Facebook, Instagram and X.
Kolton Becker is an agricultural communications and journalism junior contributing this from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.