Texas A&M
LSU
Aggies Drop 155-145 Decision to No. 18 LSU Tigers
Jan 24, 2009 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Jan. 24, 2009
COLLEGE STATION --- The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team split the race victories with LSU but it wasn't enough to pull the upset of the No. 18 Tigers who rallied for a 155-145 win over the Aggies on Saturday at TAMU Student Recreation Natatorium.
The Aggies were dominant in their bread-and-butter events, sweeping both relays, both diving competitions and the three sprint freestyle races, but LSU's superior depth provided the margin of victory.
"We knew coming in that this had a chance to be a great college dual meet," Aggie head swimming coach Jay Holmes said. "We had a lot of lead changes. Both teams were trading blows for most of the meet. We got on a little bit of a roll in the middle with three straight victories (50 free, 1m diving, 100 free), but we weren't able to build enough of a lead to hold them off at the end. LSU came to race and so did we. We had a couple of opportunities to cash in, but we weren't able to finish it."
Leading the way for the Aggies individually were sophomore freestyler Eric Sehn, who both notched a pair of individual wins. Makany, a Hungarian Olympian, powered to victories in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles with times of 45.02 and 1:39.66, respectively. "Balazs is a tough, not-afraid-of-anything type of guy with a great work ethic," Holmes said. "He comes to race and compete everyday, and it was no different against
LSU. We need a bunch more Balazs Makany's. He just wants it real bad and he's willing to work for it."
Sehn, from Canada, dove to victory in both the springboard events, winning the 1-meter with a score of 356.78 and the 3-meter with 420.16. He was closely trailed in both dives by his freshman countryman Cam McLean, who placed second in the 1m with a score of 347.03 and third in the 3m with 336.38.
Also tallying individual victories were junior Casey Strange, who outclassed the 50-yard freestyle field with a time of 20.31, and junior Nathan Lavery, who won the 100 breaststroke in his A&M debut with a time of 56.42.
The Aggies won the 200-yard medley relay to open the meet and the 400 freestyle relay to close it, both in season-best times. The foursome of junior Jason Bergstrom, Lavery, sophomore Shawn Clarke, Makany, senior Brad Raiford and Strange posted a time of 3:02.32 for the win.
