The Texas & Texas A&M rivalry will continue this Friday, when the Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team hosts the Longhorns at the Student Rec Natatorium in a matchup of top 20 teams.
No 19. A&M will take on the 8th ranked Longhorns within the friendly confines of College Station after dominant wins at home against the Miami Hurricanes and Incarnate Word Cardinals, defeating the Miami by a 162.5 to 128.5 score and then defeated the Cardinals 199 to 93, to help the Aggies to a 4-0 start this season.
As the team prepares to face an opponent such as the Longhorns, sophomore Lisa Bratton said there is an extra motivation to work hard during the week’s practice leading up to the meet on Friday.
“We’re all definitely really excited to swim against Texas. The energy is really hyped up…we’re just trying to get through the week and get to Texas,” Bratton said. “But, we’re definitely putting the work in.”
Senior co-captain Katherine Huff has raced against, and beaten, the Longhorns during her career at A&M. The excitement never goes away, but with this being the last time she will face them, it makes wanting to win that much more important.
“It’s such a big rival and every year. It’s just amazing. The competition and the thrill of swimming against your rival school is just so much fun,” Huff said. “We didn’t swim them my freshman year, but we did my sophomore and junior year. Sophomore year was really close and it came to the last relay. My junior year [last season], we beat them really well in Austin. So, [the meet] being here and me being a senior I don’t want to lose to them.”
Texas A&M head coach Steve Bultman said he is looking forward to this week’s meet not just because of the rivalry, but because the two teams are very closely competitive.
“They were a big rival of ours for a long time and for a couple of years we didn’t swim them,” Bultman said. “But they’re a really good team and they’re close to us [location] so we’re happy that we are competing against them again, it’s going to be a tremendous meet both teams are very evenly matched in almost every event and so it’s going to be a great meet and we’re excited to get ready to race.”
The Aggies and Longhorns will renew their rivalry in the Student Rec Auditorium on Friday night. The meet is set to begin at 6:00 pm.
