AUBURN, Ala. – Texas A&M senior Luke Shaw became the third Aggie to break the 47-second barrier in the 100-yard butterfly to highlight the men's swimming and diving team's day three at the 2015 Southeastern Conference Championships on Thursday.
Shaw, from Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, threw down a quick 46.98 clocking to finish fifth in the B final in the 100 fly to join the other sub-47 Aggies – Boris Loncaric (45.53 in 2009) and Henrik Lindau (46.50 in 2013). Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Famer Chris O'Neal, the school's first male athlete to be a four-time All-American, held the 100 fly school record at 47.10 for more than 20 years from 1986 to 2009, but now three Aggies have gone faster than O'Neal in the last seven years.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Luke for his hard work and for (assistant coach) Ryan Mallam's belief that Luke could be a 100 flyer,” Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. “He was our best 200 freestyler but we needed a 100 flyer and Luke did a great job of absorbing what Ryan was teaching him. What Luke has been able to do this year is just a testament to hard work.”
Senior Hayden Duplechain, from A&M Consolidated High School in College Station, got the meet started off right for the Aggies by winning the first race of the night – the “C” final of the 400-yard IM. Duplechain led from start-to-finish in the dominating win, touching the wall in a lifetime best time of 3:46.51. Also in the C final, freshman Gonzalo Carazo was sixth in 3:51.19 after posting a lifetime best of 3:49.22 in the morning session.
The Aggies received 32 points from the dive crew with freshman Tyler Henschel taking ninth in the three-meter dive with a score of 368.75 and sophomore Colton Haffey finishing 15th with a 304.70 point total.
The Aggies closed out the night with a trio of swimmers in the 200 freestyle “C” final. Junior Hunter Funk led the way with a fourth place finish (No. 20 overall) in a time of 1:36.82, while junior Mateo Muzek and junior Antoine Marc were right behind in fifth (1:36.94) and seventh (1:37.14).