In the midst of a school-record eight-year streak of top 10 NCAA finishes, including consecutive No. 4 placings, the Aggies are anxious to get started with the return of 22 letterwinners and influx of CollegeSwimming.com's top-rated 2014 signing class. The Aggies lost eight seniors from last season's team, including 2014 NCAA Champions Cammile Adams (200-yard butterfly), Breeja Larson (100 breast) and Paige Miller (100 back).
“It's good to get back to racing instead of just training,” Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. “I'll be interested to see where we are in our training. We have some big meets coming up and we need to learn some things about ourselves.”
Among the 22 returning letterwinners are 10 swimmers who earned a trip to the NCAA Championships last season when A&M took a record 16 swimmers to nationals. Returning NCAA qualifiers include seniors Kelli Benjamin, Sammie Bosma, Sarah Henry and Liliana Ibanez, juniors Claire Brandt, Colleen Konetzke, Ashley McGregor and Meredith Oliver, and sophomores Franko Jonker and Sycerika McMahon.
“We're excited about what we were able to accomplish in 2013-14,” Bultman said. “It was the most swimmers we've ever had at nationals, the most points we've ever scored and it was first time we've ever had three individual (swimming) national champions. It was an exciting way to finish out the year. We'd like to find a way to get over the hump of the fourth-place finish. We lost a great senior class, but we have some really strong competitors returning and I'm anxious to see this new class.”
The Aggies' 2014 signing class features 10 swimmers and one diver and was rated No. 1 by CollegeSwimming.com and No. 7 by SwimSwam.com (prior to the addition of five-star signee Beryl Gastaldello). Joining the Aggie roster for 2014-15 were Lisa Bratton (Richland, Wash.), diver Lauren Crown (Southlake, Texas), Bethany Galat (Mishawaka, Ind.), Gastaldello (Miramas, France), Esther Gonzalez (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), Kristin Malone (Shorewood, Wisc.), Caitlyn Moon (DeKalb, Ill.), Laura Norman (Keller, Texas), Nancy Schuchhardt (Berlin, Germany), Jessica Sloan (Magnolia, Texas), and Sarah Vinezeano (Allen, Texas). Also new to the Aggie is sophomore transfer Tera Bradham (Round Rock, Texas), who transferred to A&M from Arkansas.