Aggie men climb to eighth place at SEC Championships
AUBURN, Ala. – The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team stands in eighth place after four days of action at the 2015 Southeastern Conference Championships at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center on the Auburn University campus.
The Aggies have scored 385 points and are trailing Florida (980), Georgia (848), Auburn (760), Tennessee (687.5), Alabama (610.5), Missouri (549), LSU (420). Rounding out the team standings are South Carolina (359) and Kentucky (301).
The Aggies opened the night on a strong note with sophomore Turker Ayar grabbing second in the 200-yard butterfly “C” final in a time of 1:45.45. Earlier in the day, Ayar posted a huge personal record swim with a time of 1:45.03 in the preliminary heats, which put him No. 2 on Texas A&M all-time top 10 list in the race. Prior to Friday, Ayar was not even in the top 10.
Senior Hayden Duplechain was sixth in the 200 fly “C” final in a time of 1:46.39. In the morning prelims, Duplechain swam a lifetime best 1:45.90, which moved him to No. 5 on A&M's top 10 list.
Texas A&M had a trio of swimmers in the 100-yard backstroke finals with freshman Brock Bonetti, junior Jacob Wallace and junior Alexandros Theocharidis earning evening swims. Bonetti and Wallace placed sixth and seventh in the “B” final, with Bonetti touching in 47.46 and Wallace finishing in 47.88. Theocharidis placed seventh in the “C” final in 48.53. In the morning prelims, all three backstrokers posted lifetime bests – Wallace (47.34), Bonetti (47.44) and Theocharidis (47.75).
The Aggies had two swimmers qualify for evening swims in the 100 breaststroke. Freshman Mauro Castillo finished 16th overall in 54.08, while freshman Jonathan Tybur was 23rd in 55.46.
Texas A&M closed out the night with an eighth place finish in the 400 medley relay with the foursome of Wallace, Castillo, senior Luke Shaw and junior Cory Bolleter touching the wall in a season-best 3:10.64, which made them the fifth-fastest relay in school history.