January 07, 2007
The Texas A&M men?â„¢s swim team won five of 10 relay events as the Aggies repeated as team champions at the UC-Irvine Relay Invitational on Sunday at the Anteater Aquatics Complex.
The Aggies led the way with 512 points, and were followed by Wyoming (276), UC-Irvine (252) and Whitman (134).
The Aggies established three meet records with strong swims in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the 400 medley relay and the 800 free relay (100-200-500) and also struck gold in the 3x100 backstroke relay and the 4x200 free relay.
?We did a good job of racing and competing,? Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. ?We won five relays and UC-Irvine won five, but our depth really paid off. We asked our guys to do a lot of swimming and everyone swam in at least six races.?
Holmes said the relay he was most impressed by was the 400 free, which featured Francisco Picasso, Casey Strange, Gregory Widmer and Shawn Clarke. The foursome raced to a 3:03.74 and broke the meet record set last year by the Aggies by nearly a half-second.
?We put one senior and three new guys on that relay, so we didn?â„¢t know what to expect,? Holmes said. ?They just attacked the race. They did a good job of getting it done.?
The foursome of Israel Duran, Alejandro Jacobo, Clarke and Picasso took .16 off the meet record in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:26.30, and the threesome of Casey Strange, Widmer and James Hard set the standard in 800 free relay (100, 200, 500) by nearly two seconds in 7:09.85.
Also placing first were Latone, Widmer, Jacobo and Hard in the 800 free relay (6:53.96), and Duran, Jason Bergstrom and Clarke in the 3x100 backstroke relay (2:32.79).