NCAA Div. I Men: Texas A&M Tops Missouri

LINCOLN, Neb., Oct. 13. THE Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team began its 2002-03 dual meet season with a 172-128 win over Missouri at the Devaney Center Pool on Saturday.

The Aggies won eight of the 16 events, including both relays, en route to its first dual meet victory of the year.

"We just really wanted to get started well," said A&M Head Coach Mel Nash. "Last year they kind of jumped on us early and this time we wanted to pop out there first."

Senior Patrick Dideum (Louisville, Colo.) was the only Aggie to capture a pair of individual wins on Saturday. Dideum swept both the distance events, taking the 500-yard freestyle in 4:37.69 and the 1,000 free in 9:42.18.

Junior All-American Matt Rose (Lindsay, Ontario) won the 100 freestyle in 45.68 while having a hand in both winning relays. Rose swam a strong lead-off leg on the 200 medley relay to give the Aggies enough of a cushion to capture the win, then swam second leg on A&M's winning 400 free relay to close out the victory for the Aggies.

Adam Morgan (Portugal Cove, Newfoundland) earned a win on the one-meter springboard after sitting out last season with a major back injury. Morgan defeated Missouri's Jamie Sweeney 286.55 to 267.40 for his first win since the 2000-01 season.

Alfredo Jacobo (Leon, Mexico), the A&M school record holder in the 100 breast, won that event by clocking a time of 58.45 to beat out teammate David Friggel (Austin, Texas) for first. Freshman Scott Newmann (Duncanville, Texas) won his first-ever collegiate race with a time of 1:42.98 in the 200 freestyle.

"We looked a little crisper after doing all that sprinting on Friday," said assistant coah Jay Holmes.
"Missouri came into the dual meet a little bit more rested than we did."

With the win, the Aggies run their all-time record with Missouri to 2-0. A&M defeated Missouri in Columbia, 169.5 to 118.5, a year ago in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Due to computer difficulties, full results were not made available until late Sunday afternoon.

The Aggies will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Tex-Mex Invitational to be held in San Antonio at 10:30 a.m. The Aggies will be swimming against the Mexican National Team and Circle C Swim Club, a club team out of Austin made up of a handful of Olympic veterans and hopefuls.

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