The No. 11 Texas A&M men’s swimming and diving team continued its dominance winning the annual Art Adamson Invitational with a score of 1,144 points. Following back-to-back home wins against Kentucky and TCU, the Aggies moved up in the rankings from No. 14 heading into the invitational.
The maroon and white made their mark on all three days of the invitational, opening with a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Made up of freshmen Baylor Nelson and Connor Foote, junior Kraig Bray and senior Kaloyan Bratanov, the Aggies finished with a time of 1:15.79. Senior William Coakley was able to come back in the 500-yard freestyle to secure a top-three finish, with a time of 4:20.12.
Nelson was able to show why he was a top recruit in the 2022 class, finishing first in the 200-yard individual medley. His time of 1:41.83 is the second-fastest time in program history. Seniors Anze Fers Erzen and Andres Puente were able to finish second and third in the event with times of 1:43.36 and 1:43.37, respectively. Bray was able to contribute with a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.71.
The Aggies broke several program records, including the 400-yard medley relay composed of Foote, Bratanov, Puente and senior Ethan Gogulski. The new program record time of 3:04.08 also secured a first-place victory. The 200-yard medley relay finished with the second-fastest time in program history. Made up of Nelson, Foote, Puente and Gogulski, the Aggies finished in 1:23.45 and won the event.
The maroon and white saw a dominating finish in the 400-yard individual medley, with Aggie swimmers taking the top four places. Nelson secured the top spot with 3:38.39, Fers Erzen following up with 3:39.05, Puente finishing third with 3:41.22 and freshman Maximiliano Vega routing a fourth-place finish with 3:46.19.
Foote and senior Jace Brown were able to land first- and second-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly with times of 46.24 and 46.29, respectively. Fers Erzen was able to land a third-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing with 1:44.59. Bratanov landed a third-place finish in the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:32.49.
The breaststroke events belonged to the Aggies, with junior Alex Sanchez leading the charge. After securing a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 51.90, he was able to both break the pool record and the program record in the 200-yard breaststroke, finishing first with a time of 1:51.09. Puente was able to secure top-three finishes in both events, finishing third in the 100-yard breaststroke with 52.09 and finishing second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:51.14. Junior Vincent Ribeiro was able to have a top-five finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, finishing with 1:51.54.
Aside from Sanchez, Gogulski was also able to sweep the backstroke events, finishing first in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke with times of 45.64 and 1:40.07, respectively. Junior Thomas Shomper secured top-three finishes in both events with times of 46.96 in the 100 and 1:42.21 in the 200. Nelson continued a brilliant showing with a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke, with 1:41.17.
The team extended its dominance in the distance events. Coakley finished third in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:13.78 and sophomore Trey Dickey finished right after him with a time of 15:19.46. The distance relay teams were able to finish second in both the 800-freestyle and 400-freestyle relays. Finishing with a time of 6:21.71 in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the relay was made up of Baylor Nelson, Foote, Bratanov and junior Carter Nelson. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Baylor Nelson, Foote, Bratanov and junior Collin Fuchs finished with a time of 2:50.20.
Following a short break in the season, the Aggies will travel to Auburn to face off against No. 15 Auburn Tigers on Jan. 6, 2023. For more information and updates, visit 12thMan.com and follow the team @AggieSwimDive on Twitter and Instagram.
Justin Chen is a general studies junior and contributed this piece from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.