March 26, 2009
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Texas A&M senior diver Eric Sehn broke his own school record and placed third in the one-meter springboard and the Aggie swimmers broke a pair of school records at the 2009 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships on Thursday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.
The Aggies tallied points in three events on Thursday and stand in 11th place with 33 points. The Texas Longhorns stand atop the team standings after day one with 171 points.
Sehn dueled Texas' Drew Livingston and Purdue's David Boudia for the top spot in the 1m. In the end, Sehn was third with 420.70 points behind Livingston (442.70) and Boudia (420.80). Sehn crushed his old record of 405.15 that he set in a dual meet against SMU in 2007. Sehn's freshman teammate Cam McLean also scratched a point with a 16th place finish on the 1m.
"I was happy with the list I dove tonight," Sehn said. "I felt good with all my dives. It was great to dive in front of the home crowd. I got a lot of motivation from them. I dove my best and Drew (Livingston) dove his best and he came out on top. I give a lot of credit to him."
The Aggie swimmers had a strong first day with a pair of school record swims. Junior Jason Bergstrom opened the Aggies' preliminary race of the 400-yard medley relay with school record in the 100 backstroke in a time of 46.31 (old record of 46.69 by Riley Janes, 2001). Bergstrom's swift opening leg sparked the relay to a two-second improvement of the school record in the race as the foursome of Bergstrom, sophomore Boris Loncaric, junior Nathan Lavery and sophomore Balazs Makany hit the wall in a time of 3:08.03 (old record of 3:10.18 from last year's team at NCAAs). In the evening session, the Aggies' 400 medley relay took third in the consolation final for an overall place of 11th in a time of 3:09.01.
"I thought we had a really good first day with a pair of school records," Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. "We always want to be swimming our best when we get to the NCAA Championships. The 400 medley relay did a great job, especially in the morning session. Jason Bergstrom broke (former A&M swimmer) Riley Janes' record in the 100 back, and that was a great swim."
The Aggies also grabbed points in the 200-yard freestyle relay when the foursome of junior Casey Strange, senior Brad Raiford, Makany and senior Shawn Clarke took seventh place in the consolation final and 15th place overall in a time of 1:18.76. In the prelims, the Aggies turned in a season-best of 1:18.58.
In other action, Strange swam to a time of 19.67 in the 50-yard freestyle, but did not qualify for a night swim. Prelims began at 12 noon on Friday, and the finals start at 7 p.m.