Olivia Theall Will Join All-American Brother Mark at Texas A&M

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Olivia Theall will join the family legacy and has verbally committed to Texas A&M University. There she will join her older brother Mark Theall, who this past season transferred to Texas A&M, as a true sophomore, and became the first-ever Aggie man to score at the NCAA Championships in the 500 free when he placed 7th. Unlike her brother, though, Olivia is primarily a sprinter.

Olivia lives in Friendswood, Texas, just outside of Houston, where she’s a junior at Friendswood High School and trains with the Aquastar swim club. She is a two-time Texas High School State 5A (small schools) finalist as a junior, and as a sophomore in 2018 she was a 6A (big schools) finalist. She was the 5A runner-up this season in the 100 fly (54.27) and placed 5th in the 50 free (23.51).

Best Times

• 50 free – 23.40
• 100 free – 51.46
• 100 back – 57.44
• 100 breast – 1:05.49
• 100 fly – 53.94
• 200 fly – 2:00.34
• 200 IM – 2:05.26

This commitment is another big addition in the Aggies’ sprint focus in recruiting this summer. Last season, they won a 4th-straight SEC Championship, but their historic run of top 4 finishes at the NCAA Championships (6-straight, which was the national active leader entering the season) came to a halt when they slid to 13th place. A big part of that was the team’s lack of sprint freestylers: they scored 0 points in the 50 and 100 frees combined, their 200 free relay tied for just 14th place, and their 400 free relay was just 13th.

But the 2020 recruiting class is addressing that weakness. In addition to Daspit, the team brings in 23.8/50.2 freestyler Jade Hallum, 23.6/50.5 sprint freestyler Evelyn Bruner, and 22.9/50.7 freestyler Bobbi Kennett.

Theall’s primary events, though, are the butterflies. In the deep SEC, her bests in the 100 and 200 yard butterflies are not quite yet in scoring territory (25 SEC swimmers were sub-53 in the 100 fly last season). The Aggies do have a very young butterfly core, though – their 3 best last season were all freshmen or sophomores and are scheduled to still be on campus when Theall arrives.

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