The Texas A&M men’s swimming and diving defeated SMU Friday night on the final meet of the season as they prepare for SEC Championships.
A&M began the meet by honoring seniors Hunter Funk, Mitch Glander, Antoine Marc, Mateo Muzek, Alexandros Theocharidis and Jacob Wallace as they competed for the Aggies for the last time in front of their home crowd.
Senior Antoine Marc, who was a part of the winning relay on the final event of the night, said he was pleased with the amount of people who came to support the senior class for one last time.
“The whole team swam well which was awesome—there was a great turn out, we had like 200 or 300 people I think,” Marc said. “It was just an awesome way to go out, in front of so many people, just having a blast with my teammates as a family.”
One underclassmen stood out on senior night as sophomore Mauro Castillo broke his own school record in the 200-yard breast stroke as he finished with a time 1:57.97. This victory came to no surprise to Texas A&M head coach Jay Holmes as Castillo had predicted his record breaking time at the start of the season.
“Mauro told us at the beginning of the year before the November invite that he was going to break it,” Holmes said. “He told us not to change the plaque because he said ‘I’m going to break it again’ and he did that here tonight.”
The Aggies closed out the dual-meet season with an overall record of 7-1 as they can now set their sights on the SEC Championships. For senior Hunter Funk there is only one goal for the team, which is to perform as their fastest potential.
“We’re going to go fast,” Funk said. “We’re already swimming lights out right now and I just can’t wait to see what this team can do.”
Several other Aggies notched victories on Friday. Freshman Sam Thornton battled back to earn a 399.08 score in the 3-meter springboard dive after falling to SMU’s Bryce Klein in the one-meter spring board by a narrow margin.
Freshman Angel Martinez led the Aggies in the 200-meter butterfly followed by teammates Austin Van Overdam and Mateo Gonzalez completing the 1-2-3 sweep for A&M.
The Aggies will be back in action as the travel to Columbia, Missouri for SEC Championships Feb. 16-20.