The Texas A&M men and Florida International women made the trip to Indian River State College to take on the defending NJCAA national champion Pioneers on Saturday.
Ryan Mallam, an associate head coach for A&M, made the jump to division one coaching last year after a successful head coaching stint at Indian River, making this meet more that much more interesting.
The Men’s portion of the meet saw A&M beat Indian River by 209.5 to 89.5, and the women’s portion saw the women of FIU beat Indian River 174-126.
Men:
On the Men’s side, Texas A&M jumped out in front early, winning the 200 medley relay with a 1:32.52 performance from the team of Alexandros Theocharidis, Mauro Castillo Luna, Justin Morey, and Jacob Gonzales, who went 20.25 to anchor the relay. Morey had a solid spit of 22.32 as well. The Indian River team of Stefan Stojmenovic, Craig Emslie, Shota Nakano, and Erle Craven, took second with a time of 1:34.21.
Mitch Glander won the men’s 1000 with a time of 9:39.12 for Texas A&M, and was followed by his teammate, Meha Bernat in 9:51.35. Ronald Santos finished third for Indian River in 9:54.10.
A&M continued to put up strong showings, next in the 200 free. Antoine Marc finished first with a 1:41.23, and Mateo Muzek came in not far behind at 1:42.71 to make two straight first and second place finishes for the Aggies. Quinn Poti was third for Indian River with a 1:44.58.
Theocharidis, who swam the backstroke leg on the Aggies’ medley relay, scored a win in the 100 back in 50.21. Indian River’s Stojmenovic, a Florida State commit, was second with a 51.63, but the A&M trio of Brock Bonetti in 51.72, Jacob Wallace in 52.39, and Duncan Mulleady in 53.04 finished in third, fourth, and fifth.
A&M’s Castillo Luna took the 100 breast in 57.15, but Indian River brought out the big guns and scored a second, third, and fourth place finish from Emslie in 57.24, Craven in 58.51, and Nakano in 58.61.
Hayden Duplechain ran away with the 200 fly for the Aggies, swimming a 1:53.02 en route to a convincing win over Indian River’s Brandon Thoman. Thoman was second in 1:56.00, and Kyle Hendricks was third for the Aggies in 1:56.20.
A&M then continued rolling with a sweep in the 50 free. Gonzales, only a freshman, swam 20.57 to take first, while his teammates Cory Bolleter and Morey were 20.69 and 21.46 to take second and third. Indian River’s Danny Hartley and A&M’s Mulleady tied for fourth in 22.31.
Gonzales then doubled up with a solid win in the 100 free. Gonzales beat Indian River’s Emslie 45.56 to 46.91. Emslie and A&M’s Luke Shaw tied for second.
Theocharidis took home his second win of the evening with an almost three second victory in the 200 back. Theocharidis beat his teammate Bonetti 1:51.51 to 1:54.33. Another Aggie, Cameron Kerr, was not far out of second, finishing in 1:54.54.
The Aggies had some weakness exposed in the 200 breast, although their best 200 breastroker so far this season, Mauro Luna Castillo, who has been in the 2:05 range and would have won the heat, did not swim the event. Indian River got their first win of the meet from Craven, who won in 2:07.31. Nakano was second in 2:08.11 for Indian River. Hayden Duplechain was third for the Aggies with a 2:10.67.
The Aggies got things back on track with a sweep of the 500 from Bernat in 4:42.17, Mateo Muzek in 4:42.19, and Mitch Glander in 4:45.79.
Then, Indian River got their second win of the day in the 100 fly. Stojmenovic touched first with a 50.96, but A&M responded with a second place finish from Turker Ayar in 51.56, a third place from Castillo Luna In 51.89, and a fourth place from Morey in 51.94.
The 200 IM was the same story for A&M. Gonzalo Carazo Barbero finished with a 1:55.04 to beat Indian River’s Poti, who was 1:56.76 for second.
The team of Jacob Gonzales, Justin Morey, Cory Bolleter, and Luke Shaw won the 400 free relay for A&M in 3:05.80. Gonzales had the fastest split in 45.60 from the leadoff leg.
The B team was 3:07.31 from Antoine Marc, Turker Ayar, Mateo Muzek, and Hunter Funk. Indian River’s A team finished in 3:07.64.
Women:
The women’s half of the meet was a bit closer than the men’s.
Indian River scored a key double in the sprint freestyles from Barbara Caraballo. Caraballo was 24.02 in the 50 free, beating the FIU trio of Paulina Zelazna, who was second in 24.79, Klara Andersson, third in 24.89, and Ally Mayhew, fourth in 24.94.
In the 100, Caraballo was 51.96, a full second ahead of Zelazna, who came up second in 53.07. Leah Sims from Indian River was third in 54.24, and Lindsay Lee, also of Indian River, was fourth in 54.32.
Indian River also won the 200 medley relay. Caraballo, Christina Loh, Tayla Lovemore, and Lee, touched in 1:44.71, way ahead of FIU’s second place B relay. Silvia Scalia, Jess Chadwick, Zelazna, and Klara Anderson, made up that relay and finished with a 1:46.46.
FIU answered the relay loss with a sweep of the 1000. Nadia Farrugia was first in 10:36.46, Courtney VanderSchaaf was second in 10:38.98, and Anna Jonsson was third with a 10:46.11. All three women were finished far out ahead of Hannah Lynch of Indian River, who was fourth with a 10:55.31.
Skye Carey, Johanna Gustafsdottir, and Becky Wilde completed FIU’s second sweep in as many events with their 200 free performance. Carey was 1:54.95, Gustafsdottir was a close second in 1:54.97, and Wilde was third in 1:56.63.
Silvia Scalia took the 100 back for FIU by a second over Indian River’s Lee. Scalia touched with a 57.20. Lee finished in 58.22. Karin Tomeckova was third for FIU with a 59.68.
Loh answered back for Indian River with a win in the 100 breast, blowing out FIU’s Chadwick to win. Loh finished in 1:04.27, three seconds ahead of FIU’s Chadwick, who went 1:07.40, and Chadwicks teammate, Jean Madison, who was 1:07.79.
Later in the meet, Loh again beat Chadwick for a first place finish, this time in the 200 breast. Loh touched first in 2:20.92, and Chadwick was again about three seconds back, finishing in 2:23.50. Madison was third again for FIU in 2:25.91.
Following the 100 breast, Brittany Fant won the 200 fly in 2:07.48, and got things back on track for FIU. Her teammate, Maria Lopez, was second in 2:09.02. Indian Rivers Tayla Lovemore was third in 2:14.14.
After the sprint freestyles, Scalia got her second win of the night, blowing out the field in the 200 back. Scalia, of FIU, was 2:02.08 to dominate her teammate, Gustafsdottir, who was second in 2:08.33.
The 500 free was another FIU sweep. Fant won with a 5:10.30. Carey was second in 5:12.98, and Courtney Vanderschaaf was third with a 5:14.62.
Tayla Lovemore narrowly took the 100 fly with a 58.78 for Indian River. She and Tomeckova were the only two swimmers under a minute. Tomeckova, of FIU, was 58.82. Lopez was third for FIU with a 1:00.09.
Gustafsdottir, an Icelandic junior national team member, won the 200 IM by a six second margin. She was 2:09.05, well ahead of her teammate Chadwick. Chadwick finished in 2:15.26 while Jean completed the sweep in 2:16.03.
The 400 free relay was a close finish. Lovemore, Caraballo, Leah Sims, and Lee won the relay for Indian River, with a 3:33.02. Caraballo had the fastest split on the relay with a 51.56. Fiu’s A was not far behind, but did not have the speed to match Carabollo. Zelazna, Fant, Carey, and Klara Andersson were second with a 3:33.21.
Full results are available here
Jacob Gonzales is a sophomore.