November 17, 2006
The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team will face off against traditional rivals SMU and LSU, as well as Pacific, in the inaugural Art Adamson Invitational Friday through Sunday at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
The Adamson Invitational, which was been called the Texas A&M Fall Invitational in previous seasons, was renamed to honor Art Adamson, the longest tenured head coach in Texas A&M athletic history. Adamson coached the swimming program from 1934 until 1969, a reign of 35 years.
During that time, he led Texas A&M to three Southwest Conference team championships as well as several swimmers to Olympic berths, including 1952 Bronze Medalist Tetsuo Okamoto. More than 25,000 Aggies were taught swimming by Adamson over that time, including several World War II veterans that survived D-Day because of his physical education swim classes.
The Aggie men are 4-0 in previous Fall Invitationals. Last year the Aggies out-distanced runner-up SMU for a 153.5 point victory, 1,199-1,045.5. A&M posted individual wins in the 400-yard freestyle relay (Scott Newmann, Ozzie Gardner, Andrew Sullivant and Ryan Kemp), the 200-yard breaststroke (Alejandro Jacobo) and the 10-meter platform (David Kalec).
Friday's preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with finals slated for 6 p.m. Saturday's schedule will remain the same as Friday while Sunday's prelims will start at 9:30 a.m. with finals at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free. The 12th Man Team Rewards Program will be there to scan its members at finals sessions only.
For more information on the legendary Art Adamson, visit the USA Water Polo website by .