Texas A&M Women’s Swimming Extends Unbeaten Streak to 18 With Win Over Rice

Photo Credit: Griffin Scott

COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team won its 18th-straight dual meet Saturday afternoon, topping the Rice Owls 167-91 to close out 2014 at 5-0.

Texas A&M Press Release

The top-ranked Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team closed out the 2014 portion of its 2014-15 schedule with strong dual meet victory over the Rice Owls on Saturday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.

The Aggies, who will return to action on Jan. 8, 2015 with a double dual against Tennessee and SMU, delivered a 167-91 win over the Owls, which included wins in 13 of 14 possible races. In the individual races the Aggies swept the top two spots in 11 of 12 races and finished 1-2-3 in six races. Texas A&M closed out the fall with a perfect 5-0 record and extended its three-year unbeaten streak in dual meets to 18.

“We put in a solid week of hard work coming off the Thanksgiving break, so I was very pleased with our performance,” Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. “We stepped up and raced extremely well. We put people in some different races than they are used to and they responded very well. It was a good day for us as we head into finals and then winter training.”

The Aggies won both relays and had four swimmers with a pair of individual wins on the day – seniors Lili Ibanez and Sarah Henry, junior Ashley McGregor and freshman Laura Norman.

Ibanez swept the 50- and 100-yard freestyles in 23.17 and 50.63, respectively; Henry won the 200 free (1:48.14) and the 400 IM (4:11.75); McGregor touched first in the 200 breast (2:15.16) and the 200 butterfly (2:03.72); and Norman won the 100 backstroke (56.75) and the 100 butterfly (56.07).

Nabbing solo victories were freshman Beryl Gastaldello in the 200 back (2:01.46), sophomore Sycerika McMahon in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.15) and sophomore Sarah Gibson in the 500 free (4:53.37).

The Aggies opened the meet with a victorious effort in the 200 medley relay with the foursome of Gastaldello, McMahon, Gibson and junior Meredith Oliver touching in 1:42.01, and then closed the meet with a win in the 200 free relay with the quartet of senior Emily Neubert, senior Kelli Benjamin, Norman and Ibanez getting to the wall first in a time of 1:34.21.

Rice Press Release

Senior Erin Flanigan won the rugged 1,000-freestyle as the Rice swim team took on No. 1 ranked Texas A&M Saturday afternoon in College Station.

Flanigan’s win was the lone individual victory for the Owls in the 14-event program. The Aggies won the dual meet by a final team score of 167-91.

In the 1,000-freestyle Flanigan and A&M’s Caitlynn Moon and Ellen Quirke quickly separated themselves from the rest of the field. Even after the first 800-yards there was no distinguishable advantage for any of the three leaders. At the 850 mark the Owl senior from Austin made her move to take the lead for the first time, albeit by a narrow three-one-hunderedths of a second.

The strategy worked. Flanigan went 1:28.15 over the final 150-yards to hold-off an Aggie charge and finish with a winning time of 10:12.61. Quirke was second (10:14.16) and Moon was third (10:14.18).

Flanigan took a shot a pulling off the day’s distance double entering the 500-freestyle. She finished third in the with a time of 5:00.28 while Anniina Ala-Seppala was fourth (5:14.46).

Rice also had third place from true freshman Hannah Deters in the 100-freestyle (52.17). The rookie also posted a season-best 23.82 to take fourth in the 50-free.

Senior Madison Livingston followed a third in the 100-breaststroke (1:06.81) with a fourth place in the event’s 200 (2:24.10). Senior Casey Clark was third in the 200-butterfly (2:05.49).

Freshman Kaitlyn Swinney was third in the 400-individual medley (4:33.57). Fellow freshman Julie Litver and Kiley Beall were fourth in the 100-backstroke (59.18) and 200-backstroke (2:08.39), respectively.

The full results, and a video interview with Rice head coach Seth Huston, are available at the above links.

Results: Rice vs. Texas A&M

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