Oct. 24, 2009
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Texas A&M junior Balazs Makany's 200-yard freestyle victory highlighted A&M's second-day action and helped the Aggies to a second-place team finish at the inaugural Southwest Collegiate Plunge on Saturday at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium.
Makany, a two-time Hungarian Olympian, out-dueled Texas' Jackson Wilcox down the stretch and emerged victorious, 1:39.95 to 1:39.98 in the 200 free for the Aggies' lone victory of the two-day event. The Aggies grabbed runner-up finishes in both relays and two individuals posted silver medal finishes to boost A&M's cause on Saturday.
"I'm very pleased with the way we stepped up on the blocks and raced today," Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. "It was a continuation of the good swimming that we started on the first day. Our team is so much further ahead of where we were at this time last year. I think the guys have done a great job of adapting to the workload that we're asking them to do. We grew as a team this weekend, but we've got to find a way to keep getting better because we still have a long way to go."
The Aggie foursome of senior Nikita Denisyako, senior Casey Strange opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:31.15.
Denisyako, who was the runner-up in the 200 back on Friday, placed second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 48.81.
True freshman Omar Enriquez continued his strong A&M debut with his second second-place finish of the meet with a runner-up placing in the 200 butterfly in a time of 1:51.40.
The Aggies closed the meet with a runner-up finish in the 400 freestyle relay when the foursome of Makany, Strange, true freshman John Dalton and Loncaric hit the wall in 3:05.29.