The Texas-Texas A&M women’s swimming rivalry in the last few years before the Aggies left the Big 12 was one of the best rivalries in college swimming. Conference championship meets were decided by a handful of points, and there was plenty of jawing back-and-forth, but not so much as to diminish the respect (between the swimmers at least) on the different teams.
After A&M bolted for the SEC in 2012-2013, though, the entire relationship between the two schools soured in a bad way. The schools broke off years-long traditions of competition across-the-board, even in sports like swimming where there wasn’t big money on the line.
In the fall of 2013, though, the rivalry will be renewed. A&M released its 2013-2014 schedule today, and their second intercollegiate meet of the season will be hosting the Texas Longhorns in College Station. Note that Texas women’s head coach Carol Capitani was an assistant at Georgia in 1999 during their NCAA title season when Texas A&M women’s head coach Steve Bultman was an associate head coach there, and perhaps that history helped repair the rivalry between these two top-10 programs. That meet will be held on Friday, October 18th, making it the first scheduled head-to-head competition between the two schools since A&M joined the SEC
Note that the A&M men, who have also released their schedule, don’t have Texas on it. They’ll swim only 6 meets prior to the SEC Championships – a typically very sparse competition schedule – that includes Incarnate Word, Missouri, Georgia, LSU, and SMU.
Before that, A&M will travel to Nashville to face Vanderbilt for the first time since joining the SEC. After welcoming in Texas a week later, they will go to another old Big 12 (and new SEC) foe Missouri for a dual in Columbia on November 1st.
After a few years of hopping around to different invitationals in Atlanta and Houston, among other places, A&M this year will host their own Texas A&M Invitational – something they had gotten away from the past few years – from November 21st-23rd. That begins a run of 5-straight home meets.
They’ll resign to a month of training before hosting Rice just before Christmas; after the break, they get to show-off against the defending NCAA Champions Georgia in a rematch of the top two teams in the SEC last year. Aside from Texas, that will be the Aggies’ only real challenge in dual meet competition this coming season.
They then go on a roll of five meets in 8 days, preparing for the dragged-out SEC Championships, as they host SMU on January 11th, Houston and new coach Rich Murphy on January 16th, and LSU on January 18th.
The Aggies will then have one final tuneup against North Texas on February 1st, with the SEC Championships set to begin in Athens, Georgia at the University of Georgia from February 18th-22nd.
The season will end at the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, where the Aggies, who hardly lost anything from their #4 team last year, will hope for the first top three finish in school history.
The full A&M women’s 2013-2014 schedule is directly below, with the men’s schedule to follow.
| Date | Opponent | Location | Time (CT) | Results | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 05 | ASA Open Water Collegiate Championships | Austin, Texas | TBA | ||
| Sat, Oct 12 | Vanderbilt | Nashville, Tenn. | TBA | ||
| Fri, Oct 18 | Texas | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Fri, Nov 01 | Missouri | Columbia, Mo. | TBA | ||
| Thu, Nov 21 – Sat, Nov 23 |
Texas A&M Invitational | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | All Day | ||
| Fri, Dec 20 | Rice | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Fri, Jan 10 | Georgia | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Sat, Jan 11 | SMU | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Thu, Jan 16 | Houston | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Sat, Jan 18 | LSU | Baton Rouge, La. | TBA | ||
| Sat, Feb 01 | North Texas | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Tue, Feb 18 – Sat, Feb 22 |
SEC Championship | Athens, Ga. | All Day | ||
| Thu, Feb 27 – Sun, Mar 02 |
Speedo Sectionals | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | All Day | ||
| Thu, Mar 06 – Sat, Mar 08 |
American Short Course Championships | Austin, Texas | All Day | ||
| Mon, Mar 10 – Wed, Mar 12 |
NCAA Zone Diving Championship | Minneapolis, Minn. | All Day | ||
| Thu, Mar 20 – Sat, Mar 22 |
NCAA Championship | Minneapolis, Minn. | All Day |
Men’s Schedule:
| Date | Opponent | Location | Time (CT) | Results | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Oct 17 | Incarnate Word | San Antonio, Texas | TBA | ||
| Fri, Nov 01 | Missouri | Columbia, Mo. | TBA | ||
| Thu, Nov 21 – Sat, Nov 23 |
Texas A&M Invitational | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | All Day | ||
| Fri, Jan 10 | Georgia | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | TBA | ||
| Sat, Jan 18 | LSU | Baton Rouge, La. | TBA | ||
| Fri, Jan 24 | SMU | Dallas, Texas | TBA | ||
| Tue, Feb 18 – Sat, Feb 22 |
SEC Championship | Athens, Ga. | All Day | ||
| Thu, Feb 27 – Sun, Mar 02 |
Speedo Sectionals | Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) | All Day | ||
| Thu, Mar 06 – Sat, Mar 08 |
American Short Course Championships | Austin, Texas | All Day | ||
| Mon, Mar 10 – Wed, Mar 12 |
NCAA Zone Diving Championship | Minneapolis, Minn. | All Day | ||
| Thu, Mar 27 – Sat, Mar 29 |
NCAA Championship | Austin, Texas | All Day |
Stanford women have the Nov -21-23 TA&M Invite on their schedule. Who else will be there?
Grand Inquisitor – we asked, and their SID is trying to gather the info for me.
Grand Inquisitor – they said they don’t want to share right now, so it will be up to cobbling the teams together from different schedules for the time being.
Braden – Thanks for the effort to check. At minimum this meet ought to offer some interesting Aggies v Cardinal matchups at a time both teams will be trying to put up qualifying marks.
Carol was a coach at UGA, not a swimmer, in 1999.