The Texas A&M swim teams started their season off on a positive note when the CSCAA rankings came in last week. The men are ranked No. 11 and the women are No. 12.
Both teams will make their home debuts this weekend in College Station against Ohio State.
The women kicked their season off on Sept. 13 at the CSCAA Open Water Championships, hosted by the University of Kansas. A&M finished third out of 15 teams.
Five Aggies competed in the 3.1-mile swim across Lone Star Lake in Lawrence, Kansas. Upperclassmen Joy Field, Karling Hemstreet and Taylor Pike all swam in the meet, as did newcomers Mollie Wright and Ashley Conrad.
The Open Water Championships was Conrad’s first event for A&M. She finished 40th with a time of (1:09:20.9) in the 3.1 mile swim. She holds high school records in the 200 free (1:49.41), 500 free (4:52.79) and the 100 back (56.7), as well as the 200 and 400 IM relays.
Field had a stellar sophomore year, setting many personal records last season in the 200 free (1:50.41) and 100 back (57.73) at the Art Adamson Invitational.
Pike finished in fourth place in the 200 butterfly at the 2018 SEC Championships, also finishing 11th in the 200 butterfly at the NCAA Championships.
A&M men’s swim team will officially get its season underway on Oct. 18 against No. 5 Ohio State.
“The expectation is always to get better,” A&M men’s coach Jay Holmes told 12thMan.com. “We do want to win championships. We haven’t won one here in many years, and our team wants to have the opportunity to see how good we are. Being able to compete at this level is always an excitement.”
The Aggies will have three new faces on the men’s team this year. The newcomers include Jace Brown, William Coakley and Andres Puente. Brown was a six-time state finalist in the 100 fly and 200 IM as both a high school sophomore and junior. Coakley was a four-time top five state finalist in the 200 and 500 free his senior and junior years of high school. Puente recorded record times of 28.80 in the 50 breast, 1:02.97 in the 100 breast and 2:16.08 in the 200 breast.
Junior Kurtis Mathews is at the top of the leaderboard for the Aggies in diving after receiving second place in the three-meter and fourth in the one-meter at the SEC Championships.
“Kurtis Mathews, our Australian, has improved immensely,” diving coach Jay Lerew told 12thMan.com. “He’s decided he’s going to get a body. He’s been in the weight room really intensely and conditioning to getting super strong and quick. Right now he’s got dives he’s doing that nobody in the world is doing, which is cool. So we’ll see how that turns out for him.”
Both swim teams will host the Ohio State Buckeyes in their home debut of the 2019-2020 season in College Station on Friday, beginning at 4 p.m. and continuing on Saturday.