Oct. 29, 2010
Team Results
Individual Results
The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team won a pair of events on its way to second place in the team standings after the first day of the Southwest Collegiate Plunge on Friday at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium.
The Aggies scored 486.5 points in the first day of action and trail only defending NCAA team champions Texas (518 points). Looking up at the Aggies and Longhorns are TCU (446), Missouri (429.5) and SMU (389). The Aggies return to action on Saturday at 12 noon.
"I was happy with the way the team competed," Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. "Things weren't necessarily pretty for us, but I loved the way they stepped up and raced. To really compete, we need to win more races and not rely on our depth, which is something we will focus on (Saturday)."
A&M received individual wins from junior Grant Nel in the 1-meter springboard and sophomore Omar Enriquez in the 500-yard freestyle. Nel out-dueled Texas All-American Drew Livingston for the victory with a score of 391.30 to Livingston's 387.40. Enriquez took the win the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:26.93, holding off Texas' James Robertson (4:27.29) and Scott Jostes (4:32.83) in the process.
"What else can you say about Grant?" Holmes said. "He just wins and makes it look easy. Omar's 500 might have been one of the toughest 500s I've even see him swim. He's working through shoulder pain right now and really had to gut out the victory."
A&M also hit the wall first in several of the consolation races with sophomore Mansfield High School product John McClure in the 500 free (4:41.50); sophomore John Dalton in the 100 free (46.06) and 100 fly (51.58); Enriquez in the 200 backstroke (1:50.68); senior Nathan Lavery in the 100 breast (57.12).
"It was really rewarding to see John (McClure) win the consolation heat of the 500," Holmes said. "It was great to see him getting it done in his home high school pool. John Dalton won both his consolation heats. He swam well and was very aggressive in his races, and that paid off for him. Omar also won the consol of the 200 back, and that's the first time he's ever swam that race for us - maybe he should swim it more often. I think the competition in the breaststroke will be fun to watch because there will be a huge battle between (Bryan) Snowden, (Amini) Fonua and Lavery."