No. 1 Texas A&M (5-0) downed unranked Rice (2-3) Saturday afternoon 167-91 in the Aggies’ only home dual meet of the season.
Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving continues to hold onto its undefeated streak of nearly two years. The nationally top-ranked team closed the 2014 portion of its season by rolling over the Rice Owls.
“There’s a number of [swimmers] performing well,” said head coach Steve Bultman. “Some of the seniors have come back and really been swimming well, winning a lot of events for us. A lot of the other girls, returners, have stepped up, and then our freshman class has really come in and contributed which we needed them to because we lost a really good senior group last year.”
Starting off strong, the Aggies opened with a 200 medley relay with a Beryl Gastaldello-Sycerika McMahon-Sarah Gibson-Meredith Oliver foursome. The quartet posted a time of 1:42.01 to claim victory.
Thirteen of the 14 total races were won by Aggie swimmers. Twelve of those were individual races and the Aggies swept the top two spots in 11 and the first three places in six. Texas A&M now extends its three-year dual meet streak to 18 victories.
Each of the two relays were won by Aggie swimmers and four women took a pair of individual wins on the day — seniors Sarah Henry and Lili Ibanez, junior Ashley McGregor and freshman Laura Norman.
Ibanez finished the 50 and 100 freestyles with times of 23.17 and 50.63. Henry came in first in the 200 free and 400 IM competitions, posting times of 1:48.14 and 4:11.75. McGregor claimed victory in the 200 breast (2:15.16) as well as the 200 butterfly (2:03.72). Norman touched first in the 100 backstroke (56.75) and the 100 butterfly (56.07).
The Aggies closed the meet with another win in the 200 free relay (1:34.21) with the talents of seniors Emily Neubert, Kelli Benjamin, Lili Ibanez and freshman Laura Norman.
The women will return to action on Jan. 8 when they play host to No. 8 Tennessee at the Student Recreation Center Natatorium.