AUBURN, Ala. – Boosted by a school record effort from freshman Béryl Gastaldello and a host of other strong performances, the Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team climbed to second in the team standing at the 2015 Southeastern Conference Championships on Wednesday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center on the Auburn University campus.
The Aggies' strong day two performance boosted them from sixth to second with 442 points. Georgia leads the way with 526 points, followed by Texas A&M, Florida (410), LSU (321), Tennessee (311), Auburn (259), Kentucky (246), Missouri (240), South Carolina (224), Arkansas (204), Alabama (187) and Vanderbilt (90).
Gastaldello, from Miramas, France, took down one of the oldest records at Texas A&M with a blistering time of 21.85 that supplanted the 21.93 by Triin Aljand at the 2009 NCAA Championships. The French National Team member also guaranteed her spot at the 2015 NCAA Championships by achieving a NCAA automatic cut. Gastaldello continued her strong SEC meet debut with the school record after contributing one of the fastest fly legs on the Aggies' 200 medley relay on Tuesday.
“It was fun to see that record go down,” Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. “I loved it when Triin set it, but it was time for it to be broken. Beryl did a great job and she was just a tenth of a second from winning it. This is exactly when we've been seeing from Beryl in practice, so her performance wasn't a surprise but it's nice to see it in a meet.”
Also in the 50 free, senior Sammie Bosma placed eighth in the Championship final in 22.36, while senior Lili Ibanez was 22nd (22.79) and junior Claire Brandt was 24th (22.86).
The Aggies piled up 73 points in the 500 freestyle with senior Sarah Henry leading the way with a third place finish in the Championship final. Henry, the 2013 SEC Champion in the the 500, finished in a time of 4:38.10 behind 2014 SEC and NCAA Champion Amber McDermott of Georgia and Jessica Thielmann of Florida. Sophomore Sarah Gibson took eighth in the A final in 4:43.99. Junior Colleen Konetzke was fourth in the B final (12th overall) in 4:43.43, while freshman Nancy Schuchardt won the C final in a time of 4:46.00.
A&M showed off its depth by scoring a whopping 87 points in the 200 IM. Freshman Bethany Galat took the early lead but ended up fourth in a time of 1:56.53, while fellow freshman Kristin Malone placed eighth in 1:59.24. Another freshman, Lisa Bratton, won the consolation final with a time of 1:57.28, while junior Meredith Oliver was right behind in fifth (13th overall) in 1:58.83. Finishing out the A&M scoring were sophomore Sycerika McMahon (22nd, 1:58.87) and junior Ashley McGregor (23rd, 1:59.22).
The Aggie divers chipped in 45 points in the one-meter dive with sophomore Madison Hudkins leading the way with a fifth place finish with 319.00 point total. Sophomore Destine'e O'Neal placed 16th with a score of 267.95, while fellow sophomore Courtney Hattie was right behind in 17th with 267.40.
Texas A&M closed out the night with a fourth-place finish in the 200 free relay with the foursome of Galat, Gastaldello, Brandt and Bosma hitting the wall in a season-best time of 1:29.01.