Nov. 4, 2010
The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team will renew its rivalry with the Texas Longhorns in a State Farm Lone Star Showdown dual meet at 6 p.m. on Friday at TAMU Student Recreation Natatorium. The Aggies currently trail the Longhorns in the Showdown standings, 2.5 points to 1 point.
The rivalry has heated up in recent years with the two schools splitting the last four regular meetings, and the Aggies have won three of the last four Big 12 titles, each time at the expense of their archrivals.
"It has definitely developed into a great rivalry," Aggie head swimming coach Steve Bultman said. "Texas was so good for so long, and we had to work ourselves up so we could start competing with them. Now we can, and it's definitely been fun these last few years with some close head-to-head matches - dual meets, at conference and the NCAAs. Both teams bring out the best in each other. There will be some fast swimming on Friday and it will be fun to watch."
The Aggies are 1-0 in the early stages of the 2010-11 season with 183-101 victory over Houston on Oct. 26 to their credit. The Longhorns are 3-0 with a narrow 156-144 win over the Cal Bears in Berkeley, Calif., and double dual wins over Indiana and Michigan in Bloomington. In their 2010-11 lidlifter, the Aggies posted a pair of NCAA "B" swimming cuts from freshman Breeja Larson in the 100-yard breaststroke and from sophomore transfer Caroline McElhany in the 200 fly, and had divers Jaele Patrick, Janie Potvin and Lorena Lujan log their NCAA zone qualifiers.
"A lot of our swims against Houston were very good," Bultman said. "I was very pleased with our times and some of them were even faster than I expected at this point of the season. We're still working hard. This is an important meet, but it's definitely not anywhere close to the biggest meet of the year. We want to see what our team can do, stepping up and racing at this time against some very good competition. But at the same time, we have plans down the road that we need to make sure we're taking care of."
The Aggies' veteran diving crew will have its hands full against quality group of Longhorn divers. The Aggie pair of Patrick and Potvin swept the diving events at the 2010 Big 12 Championships, but both teams sent a pair of divers to last year's national meet.
"It's going to be a good test for our team," Aggie diving coach Jay Lerew said. "Texas has two really good divers who were at the NCAA Championships last year and they're getting better. It will easily be our best test so far. We're going to train through (the meet) though; we're not going to let up. We're going to stay up on the conditioning because what counts is the end of the year and we have to stay on track with our training. We're going to see what they can do when they're not `peaked'."
Admission to Friday's dual meet is free, and fans unable to see the competition in person can watch live video of the meet on AggieAthletics.com at: http://www.aggieathletics.com/allaccess/index.html?media=201150