No. 7 Texas A&M women sweep North Texas in 2017 spring opener

Wednesday, January 11

College Station

3:00 PM

Texas A&M

178

109

North Texas

Photo by: Russell James/Texas A&M Athletics

Jan 11, 2017 | Women's Swimming and Diving

Full results Photo Gallery

By: Peyton James

COLLEGE STATION, Texas --- The No. 7-ranked Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team improved to 5-1 while opening the spring portion of its schedule with a 178-109 clean sweep over North Texas on Wednesday at the Student Recreation Center.

"We were disappointed that the (original spring opener) Auburn meet was cancelled, but it was good to get back in race mode again," head coach Steve Bultman said following the meet. "We have some big meets coming up. We had a couple of really good swims, so I was real pleased. I think that the Arena Pro Swim meet in Austin this weekend will be good for us. It is something that we do every year to go swim some long course (meters) meets and help them get ready for international competitions. Next week we finish up our dual meet season with SMU and LSU, with LSU being our senior recognition night."

Texas A&M won all 16 events and earned at least the top two spots in all 14 races in the pool. The Aggies opened the meet by controlling the 200-yard medley relay as they earned the top four times. The foursome of junior Lisa Bratton, senior Sycerika McMahon, freshman Golf Sapianchai, and sophomore Lexie Lupton led the sweep by claiming first place in 1:41.58.

Leading the way for the Aggies with two individual wins on the day was freshman Karling Hemstreet in the 200 free with a time of 1:49.82 and posting a top finishing time of 2:05.19 in the 200 back.

Texas A&M also dominated the 100 free, 100 breast, 100 fly, and 200 fly by claiming the top four spots in each. Junior Frankie Jonker touched first in the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.25 and sophomore Claire Rasmus led the 100 free finishing in 51.04. In the 100 fly, senior Ashley McGregor earned first place with a time of 55.39. Senior Sarah Gibson topped the leaderboard with time of 2:00.99 in the 200 fly.

Logging other individual victories for the Aggies were sophomores Tiffany Futscher in the 1000 free (10:13.24) and Lupton in the 100 back (56.85). Also earning single wins were Bratton in the 400 IM in 4:15.83 and McMahon in the 500 free (4:51.88). Juniors Jorie Caneta and Béryl Gastaldello each swam NCAA "B" qualifying times while earning individual wins. Caneta earned a victory in the 200 breast (2:12.62) and Gastaldello in the 50 free (22.57).

Across the pool, the dive team controlled the diving well with wins in both springboard dives. In the three-meter, Texas A&M had top scoring dives from sophomore Alaïs Kalonji in first (311.55), with junior Zoe Alaniz (303.15) and freshman Kaley Batten rounding out the top three (282.38). The Aggies also took the top three spots in the one-meter dive with Batten in the lead, scoring a 292.42. Kalonji placed second (279.75) and Alaniz took third (243.83).

Closing out the meet, the Aggies finished with the top four times in the 200 free relay. The quartet of freshman Samantha Siebenaller, freshman Katie Portz, McMahon, and Gastaldello touched in 1:34.25 to finish first.

The Aggies return to action this Friday through Sunday as they travel to Austin to compete at the Jamail Texas Swim Center in the Arena Pro Swim Series. Live results and live stream information for the Arena Pro Series can be accessed at USASwimming.com.