Texas A&M women take third at NCAA Swimming & Diving

Tuesday, March 13

Columbus, Ohio

All Day

Texas A&M

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Brad Marquardt

Mar 17, 2018 | Women's Swimming and Diving

saturday finals results full meet results

By: Brad Marquardt

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team matched its program-best national finish with a third-place effort for a second-straight year at the 2018 NCAA Championships, which concluded Saturday at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

Notables

The Aggie extended their streak of top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championships to 12, dating back to the program's first-ever top 10 effort in 2007.
2018 is the program's sixth straight season with a top four national finish, which is important because the top four teams receive an NCAA Championships trophy.
The Aggies have now scored 200+ points in seven straight national meets and were just a point shy of reaching the 300-point plateau for the sixth time.
Two more school records fell on the final day of the NCAA Championships – senior Beryl Gastaldello became the first Aggie under 47 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle (46.98) and fellow senior Bethany Galat turned in the third-fastest 200 breast time in history with a 2:03.26 clocking.
For the Championships, the Aggies shattered six school records:

50 freestyle – Beryl Gastaldello, 21.63
100 freestyle – Beryl Gastaldello, 46.98
200 freestyle – Claire Rasmus, 1:43.01
200 breaststroke – Bethany Galat, 2:03.26
200 IM – Sydney Pickrem, 1:52.35
400 IM -- Sydney Pickrem, 3:59.05

Top 10 Teams in the Standings:

1	Stanford	593
2	California	373
3	Texas A&M	299
4	Michigan	267
5	Louisville	232
6	Texas	221.5
7	Tennessee	180.5
8	Indiana	169
9	Virginia	161
10	Minnesota	157

Head Coach Steve Bultman said:
"It's a great feeling. It was a real battle. We were behind from the beginning but it seemed like we got better each day. Today, we did a tremendous job in the prelims getting qualified and then were able to find ways to move up in the finals. I'm really proud of what this group of girls were able to accomplish."

Galat leads Aggies 200 breaststroke parade with school record:
The Aggies sewed up their second-straight third-place team finish by putting four swimmers in the Championship final of the 200 breaststroke, which produced a school record 57 points in single event at the national meet. It was the first time since 2015 that any team has put four swimmers into an "A" final at the NCAA Women's Championships.

Senior Bethany Galat earned a second-place finish in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:03.26, which took down Breeja Larson's school record and ranks as the third-fastest time in the race ever. Galat become the No. 2 all-time performer in the 200-yard breaststroke behind only Indiana's Lilly King.

"Bethany beat Breeja's school record by more than a second and that school record was no slouch," Bultman said. "It was just a great performance by her. We knew we had a chance to get all of them into the final, but that doesn't happen very often at the NCAA Championships. It was huge for us to do it because it kept us in third place."

Junior Sydney Pickrem took third in 2:05.79, sophomore Anna Belousova was sixth in 2:07.26 and senior Esther Gonzalez Medina was eighth in 2:08.20.

Bratton closes out career with fourth-place finish in 200 back:
Senior Lisa Bratton earned All-America honors in the 200 backstroke for the fourth straight year with a fourth-place finish in a time of 1:50.74. The school record holder in the 200 backstroke (1:49.83), Bratton owns the top 16 fastest times in the race at Texas A&M.

Gastaldello becomes first Aggie under 47 second in 100 freestyle:
Senior Beryl Gastaldello became the first Aggie to break the 47-second barrier in the 100 freestyle with a blistering 46.98 to place fifth in the 100 freestyle on Saturday. A four-time All-American in the 100 free, Gastaldello finishes her career with the three-fastest 100 frees in school history and eight of the top 10.

Freshman Pike flies to season bests:
Freshman Taylor Pike posted a pair of season bests as she earned a spot in the consolation final with a 1:55.24 in the morning prelims and then placed 12^th overall with a 1:54.20 in the evening. She moves up to No. 5 on the school's all-time performers list, just ahead of former school record holder Rita Medrano.

Freshman Yelle moves up in the mile:
Freshman Haley Yelle turned in a 21^st place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a life-time best time of 16:08.04, which made her the school's No. 3 all-time performer in the race behind Sarah Henry and Maureen McLaine.

400 freestyle relay:
The Aggies closed out the meet with an eighth-place finish in the 400 free relay with the foursome of Gastaldello, junior Claire Rasmus, sophomore Katie Portz and senior Kristin Malone posting a time of 3:13.10.