After cracking the top 5 at NCAAs for the 3rd straight year in 2014-15, Texas A&M has released a schedule with a few exciting rivalries in the 2015-16 season. Since their SEC Championships debut in 2013, the team has been in the top 3 consistently. They’ve also produced multiple SEC champions including Breeja Larson, Cammile Adams, Sarah Henry, and Béryl Gastaldello.
This upcoming season, they’ll kick off the season with an SEC opponent on the road. They travel to Lexington on Oct. 14th to face the Kentucky Wildcats. In this matchup, SEC rivals Gastaldello and Kentucky’s Danielle Galyer will have an opportunity to challenge each other. Gastaldello took 2nd in the 100 back to Galyer’s 4th at the SEC Championships last season.
The next 3 meets will all be at home in College Station. On Oct. 24th, North Texas will travel for a dual meet, with Miami and Incarnate Word following on Oct. 30. Their final meet before the mid season invite will be a dual meet on Nov. 6 with their in-state rivals, the Texas Longhorns. Last season, the Aggies won the rivalry over Texas in Austin. They’ll look to defend their win in the series again this year.
Texas A&M will host the annual Art Adamson Invitational on Nov. 19-21. This will give the Aggies a chance to qualify swimmers for the NCAA Championships early on. It also gives them an opportunity to race in a prelims-finals format for the first time in the 2015-16 season.
Following that meet, they’ll race against Rice University on Dec. 5 in Houston before training through the rest of the month.
The Aggies return to competition on January 8th in College Station against the Georgia Bulldogs. The two teams didn’t meet last season in a dual meet, but the defending SEC champion Bulldogs will give the Aggies some stiff competition this year. The teams placed 3rd and 4th, respectively, in the 400 free relay at last year’s NCAA Championships, but each graduated half of those relays, so this will be an early-semester test of who has retooled better coming out of intense winter training.
The following day on Jan. 9, SMU will come to College Station. That’ll be the last home dual meet of the season. A week later on Jan. 15-17, the Aggies will travel to Austin, Texas for the Arena Pro Swim.
On Jan. 23, they’ll swim their last meet of the regular season in a dual meet at LSU. That’ll give them a look at the Tigers before the upcoming conference meet.
The 2016 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships will be held at the University of Missouri on Feb. 16-20. Last season, Texas A&M was 2nd behind Georgia. Gastaldello will look to repeat as SEC Champion in the 100 fly.
After SECs, the Aggies will host Speedo Sectionals on Feb. 25-28, which historically has been the primary taper meet for those swimmers not on the SEC Championships team. The women who have not yet qualified for NCAAs will travel to Austin, Texas for the Big 12 Last Chance Meet on Feb. 28.
The qualifiers will head to Atlanta, Georgia for the 2016 Women’s Division I NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships on Mar. 17-19. The Aggies will return to NCAAs as the defending 4th place team from last year.
| DATE | DAY | OPPONENT | LOCATION | TV | TIME/RESULT | DETAILS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/14/2015 | Wed. |  |
Kentucky | Lexington, Ky. | 2:00 PM | More Info | |
| 10/24/2015 | Sat. | North Texas | College Station | 11:00 AM | More Info | ||
| 10/30/2015 | Fri. | Miami | College Station | TBA | More Info | ||
| 10/30/2015 | Fri. | Incarnate Word | College Station | TBA | More Info | ||
| 11/6/2015 | Fri. | Texas | College Station | TBA | More Info | ||
| 11/19-21/2015 | Thu.-Sat. | Art Adamson Invitational | College Station | All Day | More Info | ||
| 12/5/2015 | Sat. | Rice | Houston, Texas | 12:00 PM | More Info | ||
| 1/8/2016 | Fri. | |
Georgia | College Station | TBA | More Info | |
| 1/9/2016 | Sat. | SMU | College Station | 1:00 PM | More Info | ||
| 1/15-17/2016 | Fri.-Sun. | Austin Grand Prix | Austin, Texas | All Day | More Info | ||
| 1/23/2016 | Sat. | |
LSU | Baton Rouge, La. | TBA | More Info | |
| 2/16-20/2016 | Tue.-Sat. | SEC Championships | Columbia, Mo. | All Day | More Info | ||
| 2/25-28/2016 | Thu.-Sun. | Speedo Sectionals | College Station | All Day | More Info | ||
| 2/28/2016 | Sun. | Big 12 Last Chance Meet | Austin, Texas | TBA | More Info | ||
| 3/7-9/2016 | Mon.-Wed. | NCAA Zone D Diving Championships | College Station | All Day | More Info | ||
| 3/17-19/2016 | Thu.-Sat. | NCAA Championships | Atlanta, Ga. | All Day | More Info | ||
| 6/18-26/2016 | Sat.-Sun. | US Olympic Trials (Diving) | Indianapolis, Ind. | All Day | More Info | ||
| 6/26-7/3/2016 | Sun.-Sun. | US Olympic Trials (Swimming) | Omaha, Neb. | All Day | More Info |
Missing Paige Miller as multiple SEC champion.
RonSwanson- I did not make a full list of the SEC champions, just named the ones I knew off the top of my head to highlight recent success.