BATON ROUGE, La. – Texas A&M senior Lisa Bratton took down a pair of LSU Natatorium records to lead the top-ranked Aggies to a 174-119 win over LSU on Saturday in the team's final tune-up prior to the Southeastern Conference Championships.
With the win, the Aggies improved to 7-1, while the Tigers fell to 3-4.
About Bratton:
Bratton, from Richland, Wash., swept the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes against the Tigers, both in pool record fashion. Bratton won the 100 back in 53.75 (old record of 53.84 by Florida's Gemma Spofforth) and then took the 200 back in 1:54.67 (1:56.05 by Georgia's Melanie Margolis).
Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said:
(On Bratton's feat) "Lisa just swam really well today and was able to break two pool records so that's pretty exciting. Both races were good swims for this time of the year. She's been doing this throughout her career. She's already got the school record in the 200 backstroke and I think she could make it interesting with the 100 back record later this spring."
(On the final tune-up before SEC Championships) "I thought we swam really well, which was really good to see. We had a bunch of solid swims, especially when you consider the long bus ride we had to get to Baton Rouge. I was very pleased with the way we raced."
Notables
Next up…
With the win, the Aggies improved to 7-1, while the Tigers fell to 3-4.
About Bratton:
Bratton, from Richland, Wash., swept the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes against the Tigers, both in pool record fashion. Bratton won the 100 back in 53.75 (old record of 53.84 by Florida's Gemma Spofforth) and then took the 200 back in 1:54.67 (1:56.05 by Georgia's Melanie Margolis).
Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said:
(On Bratton's feat) "Lisa just swam really well today and was able to break two pool records so that's pretty exciting. Both races were good swims for this time of the year. She's been doing this throughout her career. She's already got the school record in the 200 backstroke and I think she could make it interesting with the 100 back record later this spring."
(On the final tune-up before SEC Championships) "I thought we swam really well, which was really good to see. We had a bunch of solid swims, especially when you consider the long bus ride we had to get to Baton Rouge. I was very pleased with the way we raced."
Notables
- It was the Aggies' 17th straight win over LSU dating back to Steve Bultman's second team at Texas A&M in 2001. Bultman, a 1970 LSU graduate, improved his career record against his alma mater to 18-1.
- The Aggies won 14-of-16 events against LSU, including taking at least the top two spots in nine events.
- Other Aggies winning multiple individual races vs. LSU were junior Claire Rasmus in the 100 freestyle (50.28) and the 200 free (1:48.69); freshman Jing Quah in the 100 butterfly (53.98) and the 200 fly (1:58.07); and senior Bethany Galat in the 200 breaststroke (2:13.77) and the 200 IM (2:01.35)
- Other Aggies contributing individual victories were freshman Joy Field in the 1,000 free (10:00.97), senior Jorie Caneta in the 100 breast (1:00.88), sophomore Raena Eldridge in the 50 free (23.42), and freshman Haley Yelle in the 500 free (4:53.79).
- The Aggies opened and closed the meet with a relay victories. The foursome of Bratton, Caneta, Quah and Eldridge opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:39.71, and then the group of sophomore Katie Portz, sophomore Golf Sapianchai, Quah and Rasmus touched first in the 400 free relay in 3:24.46.
Next up…
- The Aggies return to action when they host the 2018 SEC Championships Feb. 14-18 at the Student Recreation Natatorium on the Texas A&M campus.