No. 23/21 Texas A&M swimming and diving dropped a close meet to No. 4/4 Florida before defeating No. 20/16 LSU on Senior Day.
Junior Baylor Nelson was the Aggies’ first top-place finisher of the day with a season-best time of 1:36.51 in the 200m freestyle. A&M went 1-2 in the 100m back with senior Kaitlyn Owens and senior Aviv Barzelay finishing with times of 54.65 and 55.01, respectively.
Barzelay followed up that performance by finishing first in the 200m backstroke in 1:45.18. Graduate student Olivia Theall posted a time of 1:58.88 to win the 200m butterfly and didn’t finish far behind to finish second in the 100m fly with a 52.96.
The Maroon and White dominated in the freestyle sprints, winning first place in both the men’s and women’s events for the 100m free via junior Connor Foote’s 44.20 and graduate Chloe Stepanek’s 50.18.
Senior Allen Bottego put on a show as the top finisher in the 3m springboard with a season-best score of 411.30. However, it wasn’t enough, as A&M ended up losing 193-107 on the men’s side and 179-120 on the women’s side.
The Aggies bounced back the following day with a 172-128 win on the men’s side and a 163-137 win in the women’s competition against LSU.
Nelson continued his hot start from the previous meet, topping the 500m free with a time of 4.21.93. Junior Hayden Miller was able to take two top finishes with a season-best time of 9.38.02 in the 1000m free and a time of 4:43.91 in the 500m free. Stepanek continued to shine, winning first place in the 200m free with a time of 1:44.40.
The Aggies dominated the 100m fly, with Theall winning the women’s event with a time of 52.82 and freshman Jacob Wimberly winning the men’s event with a time of 48.17.
It was another Aggie finish at the top in the 200m IM with junior Giulia Goerrigk topping the women’s event with a 2:00.24 and senior Munzy Kabbara topping the men’s event with a 1:45.65.
Senior Alex Sanchez showcased his talent in the breaststroke, winning his two events by finishing with a time of 53.53 in the 100m breast and 1:56.11 in the 200m breast.
Graduate Else Praasterink took first place in both the 3m springboard and 1m springboard with scores of 348.08 and 298.28 respectively. Bottego secured a first-place finish for the men’s team in diving with a career-best 425.40 in the 3m springboard.
Next up, the Aggies head to Austin to take on Texas in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown dual meet on Friday, Jan. 31.
