The Texas A&M men’s swimming team travelled to Austin, Texas to compete in the American Short Course Championships over the weekend, their final attempt to nab qualifying spots for the upcoming NCAA Championships.
While the official NCAA qualifications won’t be announced until March 7, the Aggies put on a show at the meet, with five swimmers posting either season or lifetime best times.
Two Aggies notched season bests in the 200 fly. Junior Austin Van Overdam’s 1:45.47 time placed him at No. 6 on the Aggies’ all-time list. Sophomore Ben Walker also found a place on that list, coming in at No. 8 with his season best time of 1:45.56.
Sophomore Jake Gibbons became the second-fastest Aggie in the 1650 free with his lifetime best time of 15:17.18. Senior Brock Bonetti’s lifetime best 400 IM time of 3:46.90 earned him the No. 3 spot in the school’s all-time list.
Freshman Tanner Olson also notched a season best time, completing the 200 breast in 1:53.87.
Two other Aggies came close to breaking school records at the meet. Sophomore Adam Koster’s 100 free time trial time of 42.78 just trails the school record set by John Dalton at the 2013 Southeastern Conference Championships. This time makes Koster only the second Aggie to ever break 43 seconds in the event.
Sophomore Raiz Tjon-A-Joe’s 100 breast time of 52.88 made him the second Aggie under 53 seconds in the event, following the school record time of 52.12 set by teammate Mauro Castillo from last year’s NCAA Championships.
The diving team will seek NCAA qualification at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships MArch 5-7 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The NCAA Championships will kick off on March 21 at the University of Minnesota.
