Texas A&M’s Bonetti takes down 200 IM school record

Nov 16, 2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving, Compliance

Art Adamson Invite - Thursday Finals Results Art Adamson Invite - Friday Prelims Heat Sheets

By: Brad Marquardt

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M senior swimmer Brock Bonetti (Bakersfield, Calif.) shattered the Aggies' school record in the 200-yard IM by nearly a full second to highlight the team's day one action at the Art Adamson Invitational on Thursday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.

Head coach Jay Holmes said:
"We had some really good swims today. The IM-ers really showed up for us. We went 1-2-3-4 in the 200 IM, which is strength of our team. Brock Bonetti broke the school record in the 200 IM and that was really fun to see. He broke Mauro Castillo's old record and Mauro got third in the event. It was a good day for the IM crew. It was good to see Felipe Rizzo in the 500 free. He's a freshman and he's going to help us. He's got a great shot at breaking our school record at some point. On our 'to-do' list for this meet was getting an A cut in the 400 medley relay and we were able to get that done so I was really happy about that."

"We had some really good swims today." -Jay Holmes on his team's first day at the invite #12thMan pic.twitter.com/OT5RHOI2TN
— Texas A&M Swimming (@AggieSwimDive) November 17, 2017

Notables:

The Aggies were dominant in the 200-yard IM with a sweep of the top four spots. Senior Brock Bonetti shattered the school record with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:43.31, which lopped nearly a second off the old record of 1:44.12 by Mauro Castillo at the 2017 SEC Championships. Bonetti, also the school record holder in the 100 and 200 backstroke, took nearly two full seconds off his previous lifetime best in the race. Trailing Bonetti in places 2-4 were junior Austin Van Overdam (1:44.81), Castillo (1:45.21) and junior Angel Martinez (1:45.43), all with NCAA "B" cuts. Other Aggies logging B cuts were senior Jonathan Tybur (1:48.52 in the final, 1:47.39 in the prelims), sophomore Anthony Kim (1:47.91) and freshman Tanner Olson (1:48.65).
The Aggies opened the night with a runner-up finish in the 200 free relay with the foursome of sophomore Adam Koster, senior Duncan Mulleady, sophomore Mike Thibert and senior Justin Morey touching in 1:19.13.
Koster was the Aggies' top finisher in the 50 freestyle with a third place finish in 20.05 in the final. In the morning prelims, Koster posted a season-best time of 19.89.
The Aggies' top finisher in the 500 freestyle was sophomore Jake Gibbons, who took fourth overall with a time of 4:27.22. Freshman Felipe Rizzo dominated the consolation final as he cruised to the win with a lifetime best time of 4:23.24, which was also an NCAA "B" cut. Rizzo's time ranks No. 4 on the Aggies' all-time top 10 list in the race and set the freshman school record.
A&M's dive crew showed its impressive depth by taking places 2-5 in the one-meter dive. Junior Sam Thornton placed second with a score of 396.60 and he was trailed by senior Tyler Henschel (375.90), junior Skylar Lake (345.95) and freshman Kurtis Mathews (339.05).
Texas A&M closed out the night with impressive win in the 400 medley relay. The foursome of Bonetti, Castillo, Martinez and Koster dominated the field with a winning time of 3:07.29, which was over two seconds ahead of the field and just .13 off the Aggies' school record of 3:07.16 set at last year's NCAA Championships.

About Art Adamson:
Art Adamson was one of the longest tenured coaches in Texas A&M athletics history, coaching the Aggies more than 35 years from 1934 to 1970. During his time at Texas A&M, Adamson coached All-Americans and Olympians, while leading the Aggies to multiple conference team championships. He was inducted in the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970, as well as the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame and the Texas Swimming Hall of Fame.