Kentucky Beats Struggling Texas A&M 130-111

COLLEGE STATION, Texas. November 6. THE Texas A&M men’s swimming & diving team dropped a 130-111 decision to No. 16 Kentucky at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats (1-1, 0-1 SEC) were led by freshman James Batley, senior Daniel Farnham and sophomore Grant Nelson, who each won two events. Batley captured both the 200 and 500 freestyle events, marking the first collegiate victories of his career. Returning All-America Farnham scored victories in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Nelson capped off the men’s successful day by winning the 1000 freestyle and the 200 butterfly. Sophomore Kristian Outinen also posted his second win in as many tournaments in the 200 breaststroke event.

The Aggies (1-3) managed to win a pair of tight relay races, posting some of the top times in the nation, but were outmanned in the individual events. The Wildcats (1-1) grabbed wins in eight of the nine races to grab their first dual meet win of the season.

The Aggies shot out to the lead by taking first place honors in the 400-yard medley relay. The foursome of Matt Neal (Plano, Texas), Alejandro Jacobo (Leon, Gto., Mexico), Blaine Kisler (Corvallis, Ore.), and Andrew Sullivant (Houston) won the 400 medley relay in a time of 3:23.20, the ninth-fastest time in the nation this season.

A&M was also stellar in the 400-yard freestyle relay, winning by nearly a full second in 3:01.56. The group of Scott Newmann (Duncanville, Texas), Sullivant, Ozzie Gardner (Kearns, Utah), and Ryan Kemp (Cedar Park, Texas) turned in the Ags’ best time of the season as well the sixth-fastest nationally.

“We aren’t happy with the outcome but we did get some positives out of the meet,” A&M head coach Jay Holmes. “We did put a lot of emphasis on the relays today. Kentucky is a great relay team and we were able to finish ahead of them in both events. We sure would have liked to have beaten them in a lot more individual events however. That was the difference between winning and losing the meet. Our divers did a heck of a job again for us. We did have some good individual swims but they were just plain better today.”

Sophomore diver Eric Sehn (Edmonton, Alberta) upped his unbeaten streak to six as he earned wins on both the one-meter and three-meter springboards. Sehn was a monster on the three-meter, racking up a big season-best score of 359.18. The 2005 Big 12 Diver of the Year earned the sweep by posting a score of 292.05 in the one-meter event.

Senior Matt Neal earned A&M’s lone individual race victory by out-touching Shane Eliason of Kentucky. Neal hit the wall in a season-best time of 1:50.68 to top Eliason by .16.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x