Texas A&M vs. Boston University (Men Only)
- November 7th, 2019
- Boston, Massachussetts
- Full Results (PDF)
- Team Scores: Texas A&M Men 113, Boston University Men 81 (Heavy exhibitions by Texas A&M men)
The Texas A&M men kicked off their Boston roadtrip on Thursday with a one-day dual against the Boston University Terriers and came away with a comfortable win by 32 points. The Aggie men, who swam a lot of off-events, used heavy exhibitions to keep the score closer on paper than it was in real life.
“Today was good for us, because we got to work on some events that we don’t get to race often enough. For example Adam Koster in the 200 Free, Shaine [Casas] in the 200 Fly, and Benjamin [Walker] in the 400 IM are all places that we need more work on.”
A&M’s top swimmer, US National Teamer and sophomore Shaine Casas, is too versatile to really have many off events. He won the 200 fly on Thursday in 1:48.16, and also topped the 200 breaststroke in 2:06.31. While Casas swam the 200 fly at last year’s NCAA Championships, his big long course breakthrough this summer came in the backstroke races, and he raced more backstroke at NCAAs before a late shift to butterfly for nationals.
Last year’s Patriot League runner-up in the 200 fly, Stuart Vickery, was also the 2nd to the wall in the 200 fly on Thursday, touching behind Casas in 1:51.63.
Ben Walker, the defending SEC Champion in the 200 breaststroke, came out on top of the 500 free in 4:37.52 and the 400 IM in 3:55.34. While the breaststrokes are his primary races, he is also a very good 500 freestyler and 400 IMer – he swam the latter event at last year’s SEC Championships as well. His time from Thursday, however, is his slowest since his freshman season in that race.
Mark Theall, who is the best 500 freestyler in program history by over seven-and-a-half seconds, swam 21.29 in the 50 free for 2nd place and was 3rd in the 200 fly in 1:53.23.
Among the A&M men who raced primary events was sophomore Clayton Bobo, who won the 50 free in 21.02 and was 2nd in the 100 free in 46.40. Both times are his best of the season – a good sign given that last year, he was a big taper swimmer.
A highlight for the Boston men was a 9:32.86 in the 1000 free from freshman Sarsen Whatmore, which is his lifetime best and the Terriers’ best time of the season so far. He comes from the legendary distance freestyle program in Sarasota, Florida, and his lifetime best in the event of 9:21, done in high school, is already faster than the program record.
The A&M men will head to Harvard on Saturday to complete their road trip.