Texas A&M vs. Texas (Men)

AUSTIN, Texas, February 6. NO. 1 Texas (6-1) captured 10 of 11 events on its way to a 108-90 victory over Texas A&M (0-5) Friday evening in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

"We were flat today," A&M head coach Jay Holmes said.

The victory earns one point for Texas in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown standings. Texas holds a 6.0-2.0 lead in the season-long, all-sports competition between the two schools.

UT opened the evening with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, where junior Hill Taylor, senior Agustin Magruder, junior Ricky Berens and sophomore Jonathan Jackson were victorious in 1:29.52. Texas followed with a first through fourth finish in the 200 freestyle. Senior Michael Klueh took the event in 1:37.10, and freshman Jackson Wilcox took second in 1:38.20. Junior Ben Van Roekel took third in 1:40.24.

Freshman Drew Livingston enjoyed a dominant performance in the one-meter diving event. Livingston claimed the event with 413.85 points and topped his nearest competitor, Texas A&M senior All-American Eric Sehn, by over 60 points. Sophomore Matt Cooper placed third with 348.53 points. Magruder followed with a win in the 100 breaststroke in 55.94, and freshman Eric Friedland took second in 56.73.

Sophomore Bryan Collins led a one-two UT finish in the 200 IM, where he took first in 1:49.23 and edged junior Dave Walters, who finished in 1:49.49. Wilcox claimed the following event, the 500 freestyle, in 4:28.61. Senior Sean Patton placed second in 4:30.12.

Klueh notched his second win of the night in the 100 backstroke in 49.03. Jackson took second in 50.03, and sophomore Brian Wilson took third in 50.23. Swimming the event as an exhibition, Berens claimed the 100 freestyle in 44.95, while Van Roekel took second in 45.04. Taylor, an All-American a season ago in the 100 butterfly, claimed the event in 48.16. Sophomore Scott Jostes took second in 49.28.

The Aggies' Sehn scored A&M's lone victory in the three-meter diving event, where Livingston took second and Cooper took third. The Longhorns wrapped up the meet with a win in the 200 freestyle relay. Freshman Donald Sutton teamed up with Klueh, Walters and Robertson to finish in 1:23.01.

Nine-time Big 12 champion Eric Sehn (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) turned in the second-best three-meter performance of his career in grabbing first place honors over the Longhorns. Sehn won with a score of 427.35, just missing the school record of 428.71 he set against Penn State on Halloween of 2008. Sehn also earned a second-place finish on the one-meter after earning a score of 350.03.

"It's always tough to get off the bus and compete on somebody's home turf," A&M diving coach Kevin Wright said. "We didn't have a whole lot of time to get ready, but Eric did a good job. It reflects his years of maturity in the sport. You can see the difference in someone that has been through this a number of times and one that is new to it. Texas has a very good team and Eric needed to compete well to come out of here with a victory on the three-meter. Although I am pleased with his performance, we still have a lot of work to do."

The Aggies nearly muscled out a win to close the meet in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Junior Casey Strange (Houston) anchored A&M's fastest unit in 19.94, the fastest of the entire field. The quartet of Balazs Makany (Budapest, Hungary), Jason Bergstrom (Friendswood), Brad Raiford (Kingwood) and Strange fell just .11 short of the Longhorns top group in the meet's final race.

A&M earned a second place finish in the meet's first event, the 200-yard medley relay. The group of Bergstrom, Nathan Lavery (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), Boris Loncaric (Zagreb, Croatia), and Strange finished in 1:30.11, just over a half second behind the Longhorns.

Said Holmes, "In a lot of ways, that was pretty ugly. The first relay was a good race. I thought we battled back in that one pretty well. I've been (in Austin) before with teams where we have been in a funky transition stage and today was one of those days. When you change up the way you've been training, the body goes through an adjustment period and days like today can happen. We're definitely looking forward to the Big 12 Championships. There will be some great races that we will be a part of. Our guys are pretty hungry to swim fast."

Texas returns to the Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Saturday to meet No. 20 SMU in the regular-season finale at 4 p.m. Central. UT will honor its senior class beginning at 3:45 p.m.

Special thanks to Texas for contributing this report.

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