No. 11 Men's Swimming Takes Down No. 5 Longhorns for First Time in 55 Years

Friday, November 3

College Station

6 p.m.

Texas A&M

158

142

Texas

Photo by: Thomas Campbell/Texas A&M Athletics

Nov 03, 2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving

Results: A&M/Texas Photos

By: Brad Marquardt

COLLEGE STATION– For the first time in more than half century, the Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team defeated the Texas Longhorns in a dual meet on Friday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.

The No. 11-ranked Aggies won eight of 16 events to upset the three-time defending NCAA Champion and No. 5-ranked Longhorns, 158-142. It was the first time the Aggies had bested the Longhorns in a dual meet since Art Adamson's "Tankers" won 54-41 in 1962, which was also the same year that longtime Texas A&M head coach Jay Holmes was born. With the victory, the Aggies improved to 3-1 in dual meet action in 2017-18.

Head Coach Jay Holmes said:
"I have a list of things on my desk that remind me of things that haven't ever been done here or haven't been done here in a long time and I look at that list every day. Beating Texas in a dual meet for the first time since 1962 was obviously on my list. We had circled this meet on our calendar. The guys knew that this was meaningful to me and the team and the coaches just bought into it. They wanted to get it done and it came together for us and I couldn't be prouder of everyone that played a part in this victory. It was a great team win, they did a great job today. But I told them after the meet that this isn't our destination; this is just part of the journey. I'm thrilled to be able to mark this off the bucket list, but we've still got a whole lot of things to get done to get where we want to go."

Notables:

The Aggies got off to a quick start with dive crew grabbing the top three spots in the one-meter springboard. Aussie freshman Kurtis Mathews took the victory with a score of 358.51 and he was trailed by junior Sam Thornton (348.53) and senior Tyler Henschel (341.55).
Texas A&M opened the swimming portion of the meet with a strong victory in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome of senior Brock Bonetti, senior Mauro Castillo, junior Angel Martinez and sophomore Adam Koster took the win with a time of 1:27.06 over the Longhorns, who won the 200 medley relay at NCAAs last year.
Senior Mauro Castillo led the way for the Aggies with three individual wins, in addition to his contribution to the winning 200 medley relay. Castillo, who is the school record holder in all three races, won the 100 breast in 53.70, 200 breast in 1:55.93 and the 200 IM in 1:47.54.
Fellow senior Brock Bonetti chipped in a pair of victories with a sweep of the 100 and 200 backstrokes. Bonetti won the 100 back in 47.25 and the 200 back in 47.25.
Also chipping in a victory was junior Angel Martinez, who won the 200 butterfly in 1:47.68.
The Aggies won at least the top two spots in four races, including an incredible 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200 breaststroke with Castillo leading a parade of teammates in freshman Tanner Olson, senior Jonathan Tybur and junior Austin Van Overdam.
In addition to winning half of the events, the Aggies were runner-ups in 10 events.
The Aggies return to action Nov. 16-18 at the Art Adamson Invitational, which is named for the Adamson was one of the longest tenured coaches in Texas A&M athletics history, coaching the Aggies 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.

"It was a great team win...this meet wasn't our destination, it was part of the journey." -Jay Holmes #12thMan pic.twitter.com/Uj1Z70Z9Vz
— Texas A&M Swimming (@AggieSwimDive) November 4, 2017

Jay Holmes talks about some of the individual performances on Friday: #12thMan pic.twitter.com/U3qDVTrNVn
— Texas A&M Swimming (@AggieSwimDive) November 4, 2017