The Lonestar Showdown returns 4 p.m. Friday as the No. 9 Texas A&M women’s swimming team visits Austin, Texas for a dual meet with the No. 2 Texas Longhorns.
While both teams are currently undefeated, the Longhorns (5-0) have impressed A&M head coach Steve Bultman with their victories.
“This is going to be a battle,” Bultman said. “Texas is swimming very well. They just went out to California and beat Stanford and Cal back-to-back days. Those were the teams that finished second and third in the NCAAs last year. If I had to do the dual meet rankings right now, I’d put Texas at number one.”
This will be the second meeting of the two programs since the Aggies departure of the Big 12. The previous meet was held last year in College Station where A&M knocked off Texas 152-148 and the dual meet was decided by the last race, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“They were fired up and got after it,” Bultman said. “I’ll go ahead and use the cliché, but they gave 110 percent. It was a great meet and there was a lot of back-and-forth action. There were surprises on both teams winning and losing, but it basically came down to that last relay.”
The boards will be a toss-up between Aggies Madison Hudkins and Longhorns Emma Ivory-Ganja. Each diver established first place finishes in the 1 and 3-meter springboard at their last meet. If they were going head to head then, Ganja would have won both events with scores of 302.63 and 338.85.
A&M has placed 11 times in the top 25 fastest for the NCAA, three of which were earned by senior Sarah Henry in the 1000 freestyle and the 200 and 400 IM.
While the Longhorns hold wins against four top ten teams this fall, A&M has dominated their lower-ranked opponents. The Aggies have had a margin of victory of at least 45 points in each match, including one against SEC foe Arkansas.
“We needed to get back in race-ready mode,” Bultman said. “For most of the girls the last time they raced [before the season] was early August. The Texas meet is important, but we are hosting a meet after that and that’s an even more important meet. That’s a meet we will rest a little for and we should pick up some NCAA qualifying times.”
The Art Adamson Invitational will follow the Texas clash. It will be held in College Station from Nov. 20-22, and will mark the Aggies first home meet.
“If you can’t get excited for this meet, you’ll need a defibrillator to get your heart started,” Bultman said. “Even though we aren’t in the same conference and we took a year off two years ago, it’s A&M and Texas. We’re within two hours of each other and are two very good teams. It’s exciting, and I’m glad we are back together racing each other.”