COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Texas A&M men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will battle for conference supremacy in the 2016 Southeastern Conference Championships Tuesday through Saturday at the University of Missouri.
GETTING STARTED…
The SEC Championships get underway on Tuesday with the diving preliminaries — the women’s 1m dive at 11 a.m. and the men’s 3m dive at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday’s swimming and diving finals begin at 5:30 p.m.
For the remainder of the Championships, the morning preliminary session starts at 10 a.m. and the evening finals session begins at 6 p.m.
IN THE CSCAA RANKINGS…
- In the most recent editions of the College Swim Coaches Association of America Div. I Team Rankings, the Aggie women are ranked No. 5 and the A&M men’s squad stand at No. 24.
- The women’s poll contains eight teams from the SEC: No. 1 Georgia, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 9 Florida, No. 11 Auburn, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 20 LSU, No. 21 Missouri and No. 23 Alabama.
- The men’s poll has eight teams from the SEC: No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Auburn, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 11 Alabama, No. 13 Missouri, No. 24 Texas A&M and No. 25 LSU.
RECAPPING THE DUAL MEET SEASON…
- The women’s team finished 7-2 in dual meet action and earned a team victory in the Art Adamson Invitational last fall. Against ranked opponents, the Aggies posted a road victory over No. 23 LSU and dropped duals against then-No. 6 Texas and then-No. 2 Georgia.
- The men’s team had its most successful regular season in terms of dual meet wins with seven and winning percentage with a .875 winning clip on a 7-1 record. The Aggies also posted a road victory over No. 22 LSU in January and were second in the team race at the Art Adamson Invitational last fall.
LAST YEAR AT THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS:
- The Aggie women placed second and the men’s squad was eighth at the 2015 SEC Championships in Auburn, Ala.
- Then-freshman Béryl Gastaldello was the Aggies’ lone winner last season with a victory in the 100-yard butterfly in a school-record time and SEC meet record time of 50.87. Earning second-team honors (second- or third-place finishes) were 13 individuals, including seven 2016 returnees. Returnees that made the SEC award stand in 2015 were sophomore Lisa Bratton (200 back); Gastadello (400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR, 50 free, 100 back and 100 fly); junior Sarah Gibson (800 FR), sophomore Kristin Malone (400 FR), junior Sycerika McMahon (200 MR), sophomore Laura Norman (400 MR) and senior Meredith Oliver (800 FR).
- The men’s team was paced by diver Ford McLiney, who earned a bronze medal in the platform dive. The Aggies got a huge swim from then-freshman Brock Bonetti, who lowered his own 200 backstroke school record with a blistering time of 1:42.11 while earning the win in the consolation final.
Streaming/SEC Network +
All sessions will be available on SEC Network +.
SEC Network + provides digital-only events to SEC Network subscribers through WatchESPN and the ESPN app on smartphones, computers, tablets and connected devices (Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One). SEC Network + is not a television channel.
Live Results
Live results can be accessed at the host school’s website: MUTigers.com <http://stats.mutigers.com/live/sec/> or via Meet Mobile.
Swimming news courtesy of Texas A&M Swimming & Diving.