Texas A&M
SEC Championship
McLiney takes third on tower, Aggies place eighth at SEC
Feb 21, 2015 | Men's Swimming and Diving
The Aggies scored 555 points through the five-day competition and trailed three-time defending team champion Florida (1,314.5 points), Georgia (1,134.5), Auburn (1,084), Tennessee (918), Alabama (911.5), Missouri (768) and South Carolina (567). Rounding out the team standings were LSU (538.5) and Kentucky (407).
McLiney, who missed a large portion of the 2014-15 season due to an injury, returned to action in a big way with a third place finish in the platform dive. McLiney, last year's SEC Diver of the Meet, held the lead through four rounds but couldn't hold off Auburn's Fraser McKean and LSU's Daniel Helm. McLiney finished with 414.55 points, which was just off his A&M best of 415.20 from last year's SEC meet. The Aggies also got big points from freshman Tyler Henschel, who placed fifth with 385.30 points.
The Aggies got a huge swim from freshman Brock Bonetti, who lowered his own 200 backstroke school record with a blistering time of 1:42.11 while earning the win in the consolation final. Bonetti came to Auburn with a season best of 1:44.85, but broke the old school record of 1:43.66 by Simon Frank twice at the SEC Championships. He broke it on Tuesday in a time trial with a time of 1:43.13 before breaking it again on Saturday. The Aggies also received points from junior Mateo Muzek, who placed fourth in the "C" final in 1:44.94.
A pair of team captains, junior Cory Bolleter and senior Luke Shaw, combined to score 32 points in the 100 freestyle with a strong performances in the consolation final. Bolleter touched the wall in second place (10th overall) in lifetime best 43.46, while Shaw was right behind in fourth (12th overall) in 43.53. Bolleter's time put him in a tie for eighth on A&M's all-time list in the 100 free, while Shaw's prelim time of 43.38 put him in a tie for fifth.
In the 200 breaststroke, a trio of Texas A&M freshmen combined to score 17 with school record holder Mauro Castillo leading the way with a seventh place finish (15th overall) in the consolation final in a time of 1:58.68. In the "C" final, Jonathan Tybur took sixth (22nd overall) in 1:59.28 and Gonzalo Carazo placed seventh (23rd overall) with a time of 1:59.78.
The Aggies closed out the meet with an eighth-place finish in the 400 free relay with the foursome of Shaw, Bolleter, sophomore Turker Ayar and junior Antoine Marc finishing in 2:55.55.
Players Mentioned
