Headed into NCAA Championships, No. 10 Texas A&M men’s swimming & diving were in a good place. The team finished the regular season undefeated, including wins over No. 6 Tennessee and No. 7 Texas and shattered multiple program records.
With momentum in hand, the Maroon and White finished 16th at NCAA Championships, headlined by what they’ve done all season: breaking records.
Sophomore Connor Foote broke the school record in the 50-yard freestyle earlier this year, and if that wasn’t enough, he lowered it once again as the lead-off in the 200-yard freestyle relay, going 18.87.
Foote, along with freshman Ben Scholl, junior Seth Reno and senior Collin Fuchs clocked in a season-best 1:16.21 to grab 16th.
Picking up where he left off, Foote claimed the 100-yard freestyle program record as he went 41.60 in prelims and broke it again in finals, going 41.49 to finish 12th and earned All-American accolades.
Fellow sophomore Baylor Nelson continued his terrific second-year campaign, earning a podium spot in the 400-yard individual medley with a third-place finish. He broke the program record with 3:37.46 and grabbed All-American honors.
Junior Trey Dickey took down two records in one swim in the 1,650-yard freestyle as his 1,000 split time of 8:57.62 took down his previous school record and his overall time of 14:46.70 posted as a new program record, earning Honorable Mention All-American awards.
“The five school records this week were fun,” coach Jay Holmes said. “Baylor [Nelson] finally getting his and breaking our 400 IM record is well deserved. He has worked so hard and earned it. ”
A&M collected All-American honors throughout the meet. The first race for the Aggies garnered Honorable Mention All-American honors as Nelson, Foote, School and senior Alex Sanchez went 1:23.72 in the 200-yard medley relay to grab 15th as well as the fourth-best time in program history.
Senior Victor Povzner dived into Honorable Mention All-American accolades as he scored 13th in the 1-meter with a score of 358.50. Then, to grab his seventh All-American award in his career, Pvozner took home sixth in the 3-meter with a score of 404.50.
Nelson picked up another All-American honor as he clocked in at 1:41.54 in the 200-yard individual medley to finish top-10.
Just barely out of finishing top-10 in the 100-yard butterfly, Foote finished at 44.87 and 11th to grab Honorable Mention All-American honors.
Junior Tyler Hulet, Sanchez Foote and School grabbed A&M’s third Honorable Mention All-American award for relays as they finished at 3:04.68 to grab a top-15 finish in the 400-yard medley relay.
Sanchez finished 10th in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:51.32 en route to picking up his first individual All-American award.
Junior Rhett Hensley earned Honorable Mention All-American accolades as he posted 13th in platform, scoring 349.90.
Closing out the meet, Foote, Fuchs, Scholl and Reno finished top-20 in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:49.78.
