Texas A&M
NCAA Championships
Aggies Take 12th At NCAA Swimming & Diving Meet
Mar 28, 2010 | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 28, 2010
Complete Meet Results
The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team recorded its 15th straight top 25 finish with a 12th place finish at the NCAA Championships on Sunday at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
The Aggies scored 102 points to finish behind Texas (500), California (469.5), Arizona (387), Stanford (369), Florida (364), Auburn (277.5), Michigan (204), Georgia (143), Ohio State (136.5), Virginia (123) and USC (116.5).
"I'm proud of the way the guys competed and fought all meet long," Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. "We finished 12th, which is the same as last year. We're a little disappointed because we felt like there were some opportunities that we failed to take advantage of. We did a lot of good things this week, and I think we're making progress."
A&M's final day at the national meet included a school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay and diver Grant Nel earning his third All-America honor of the meet.
The 400 free relay placed second in the consolation final (10th overall), and pushed them ahead of Purdue into 12th in the team standings. The foursome of junior Casey Strange, freshman John Dalton and junior Boris Loncaric touched in 2:52.89 to break the old record of 2:53.03 set by the same foursome at the Big 12 meet. Dalton had the fastest split at 42.99.
"That was a great swim by those four guys," Holmes said. "They really came through for us tonight because we wanted to move ahead of Purdue in the team standings. It was great to see that swim by John Dalton. You don't often see a freshman turn in a swim like that, and that says a lot about our progress and future."
Nel, who reached the Championship final in the one- and three-meter springboard, placed 15th in the platform with a score of 335.05. He just missed the `A' final with score of 367.75 in the prelims.
"Grant was a great competitor for us all week long," Holmes said. "He was a little behind since Coach (Jay) Lerew didn't start working with him until January. He really hasn't seen a lot of time on the platform, which makes his performance more impressive."
Players Mentioned
