Texas A&M Women, Auburn Men Win SEC Battle

AUBURN VS. TEXAS A&M

• Results
• Hosted by Auburn
• Saturday, October 21st
• 25 Yards
• Dual Meet Format

FINAL TEAM SCORES:

The Texas A&M men and women made the trip to Alabama this weekend for a dual meet against SEC rival Auburn on Saturday. The teams split the meet, with the A&M women taking down Auburn on the women’s side. The men’s meet, which saw former Bolles coaches Sergio Lopez (Auburn Associate Head Coach) and Jason Calanog (Texas A&M Assistant Coach) pitted against each other, went to the Auburn Tigers.

• MEN: Auburn 162, Texas A&M 138
• WOMEN: Texas A&M 171, Auburn 122

Freestyle ace Zach Apple, who turned heads with his performances during the 2016-17 NCAA season and as a member of the U.S. worlds team, picked up an individual win for Auburn in the 200 free (1:38.15). He also placed 3rd in the 50 free (20.34) and 100 free (44.68). Teammate Peter Holoda (20.23/44.22) and Texas A&M’s Adam Koster (20.27/44.52) went 1-2, respectively, in both of those races.

Auburn’s Luis Martinez swept the butterflies to help them to victory. In the 200 fly, he had the lead through the halfway mark, but Texas A&M’s Benjamin Walker threw down a 27.44 on the 3rd 50 to take over. Martinez responded, putting up a 27.12 final 50 split to outswim Walker 1:47.48 to 1:47.76. Later in the session, Martinez won the 100 fly in 47.66 ahead of teammate Santiago Grassi (48.18).

Texas A&M’s Brock Bonetti and Auburn’s Hugo Gonzalez battled it out in the backstrokes. Bonetti shot out to the early lead in the 100 back and held off a late charge from Gonzalez to win it 47.39 to 47.46. In the 200 back, Bonetti once again took the early lead, but this time outpaced Gonzalez through the back half as well, touching in 1:44.18 ahead of Gonzalez’s 1:45.50. Gonzalez went on to win the 200 IM, dominating in 1:47.66.

Mauro Castillo Luna, one of the men in the 200 breast title conversation this season, swept the breaststrokes for the Aggies. He edged out Tommy Brewer (55.41) in the 100 breast, turning in a 54.55. He returned for the 200 breast, once again outswimming Brewer (2:01.42) and putting up the only sub-2:00 time in the field to win it in 1:59.85.

On the women’s side, Aly Tetzloff pulled off a winning triple for the Tigers. In the 100 back, she took on Texas A&M All-American Lisa Bratton, using her front half speed to take the win in 53.37 to Bratton’s 53.71. Tetzloff was neck-and-neck with Texas A&M freshman Jing Quah (53.53) through the halfway point of the 100 fly, but was able to pull ahead on the back half to win in 53.16. She battled with the Aggies’ All-American IMer Bethany Galat in the 200 IM to close the session. Tetzloff held a 2 seconds lead over Galat through the backstroke leg, but Galat outsplit her with a 34.13 to close the gap on breaststroke. Tetzloff hammered home in 28.13, building her lead again to win with a 2:00.43 to Galat’s 2:01.21.

The Aggies won all of the individual freestyle races on the women’s side. All-American Beryl Gastaldello swept the sprints, first winning the 50 free in 22.51. She then handed Auburn’s Julie Meynen the first dual meet loss of her career in the 100 free. Until today, Meynen had stayed perfect in that event in dual meets, but Gastaldello out-touched her 49.15 to 49.24. Fellow All-American Claire Rasmus won her signature 200 free for the Aggies, touching in 1:47.96.

Freshman standout Haley Yelle finished off the freestyles when she completed the distance sweep. She was the only swimmer to break 10:00 in the 1000, turning in a 9:59.37 for the win after breaking ahead in a close race with Auburn’s Zoe Thatcher (10:01.41). Yelle came back to win the 500 free by over 2 seconds in 4:50.89.

Breaststroke star Jorie Caneta swept her specialty. She was just over a tenth ahead of teammate Anna Belousova at the halfway mark, 29.00 to 29.15, but pushed ahead on the back half to win by nearly a second in 1:00.93 to Belousova’s 1:01.78. Caneta then ran away with the 200 breast, posting a 2:11.95 to finish nearly 3 secodns ahead of teammate Galat (2:14.86).

PRESS RELEASE – TEXAS A&M WOMEN:

AUBURN, Ala. — The Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team tallied a 171-122 win over No. 15 Auburn on Saturday at the Martin Aquatics Center on the Auburn University campus.

The Aggies improved to 3-0 in dual meet action in 2017-18 while winning 11 of 16 possible events against the Tigers, including taking at least the top two spots in five races.

“We started well with a really solid medley relay time for this time of year, and then we got on a roll,” Aggie women’s head coach Steve Bultman said. “We had three double winners and took the two spots in a bunch of races, so I was very happy with the way we competed. We came here wanting to see improvement and we definitely did a bunch of areas. Ultimately, we wanted to race against some really good competition and get a victory, which we were able to do.”

Leading the way with multiple individual victories were freshman Haley Yelle, senior Jorie Caneta and senior Beryl Gastaldello.

Yelle, competing in just her third collegiate dual meet, swept the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle. The freshman from Mansfield, Texas led a 1-2-3-4 Aggie finish in the 500 free with a winning time of 4:50.89 and won the 1,000 free in 9:59.37.

Caneta won the 100 and 200 breaststroke, while also helping the Aggies’ 200 medley relay to victory. Caneta, from Bakersfield, Calif., led 1-2 Aggies finishes in both races with times of 1:00.93 in the 100 breast and 2:11.95 in the breast.

Gastaldello, the defending SEC Swimmer of the Week, was dominant again with wins in the 50 and 100 free and with the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay. The senior from Miramas, France won the 50 free in 22.51 and rallied to the 100 free victory in 49.15.

Other Aggies posting victories were junior Claire Rasmus in the 200 free (1:47.96), freshman Jing Quah in the 200 fly (1:58.88) and senior Lisa Bratton in the 200 backstroke (1:55.90).

The Aggies opened and closed the meet with relay victories. The Aggie foursome of Bratton, Caneta, Quah and Gastaldello won the 200 medley relay in 1:38.88, while the group of Gastaldello, Rasmus, sophomore Golf Sapianchai and sophomore Katie Portz touched first in the 400 free relay in 3:19.25.

PRESS RELEASE – TEXAS A&M MEN:

Not yet available.

PRESS RELEASE – AUBURN:

Auburn split a its dual meets with Texas A&M on Saturday, winning 162-138 on the men’s side but falling 171-122 in the women’s meet.

“It was another day of solid racing for us,” Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. “We are deep into our training cycle and we have been training hard for the past seven weeks now. Overall I’m very pleased with our progression.”

Auburn’s distance trio of Bryan Lee, Grant Shenk and Russell Noletto had a solid afternoon of swims, finishing 1-3-4 in both the 1000 and 500 freestyles.

Lee took top honors in the 1000 (9:18.46) and was third in the 500 (4:33.60) while Noletto won the 500 (4:30.88) and was fourth in the 1000 (9:32.87). Shenk went 9:28.82 in the 500 to take fourth and 4:35.65 in the 1000 to take third.

“Hats off to the distance swimmers, I felt like they won the meet for us today,” Hawke said. “The 1000 and 500 frees were big momentum swings.”

Peter Holoda and Zach Apple finished 1-3 in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. Holoda touched in 20.23 in the 50 and 44.22 in the 100 while Apple touched in 20.34 in the 50 and 44.68 in the 100. The duo were also a part of the winning 400 free relay, which went 2:56.58 behind Apple (44.21), Owen Upchurch (44.34), Hugo Morris (44.66) and Holoda (43.37).

Apple picked up an individual win in the 200 free in 1:38.15, just out-touching Upchurch, who was second in 1:38.25.

Luis Martinez swept the butterfly events, winning the 200 in 1:47.48 and the 100 in 47.66. He was the first of a 1-2-3 Auburn sweep in the 100 with Santiago Grassitaking second (48.18) and Hugo Morris third (48.66). Grassi also took third in the 200 (1:49.03).

Hugo Gonzalez rounded out the individual wins on the men’s side with a 1:47.66.

On the women’s side, Auburn earned six wins, with Aly Tetzloff picking up three of them.

“Aly Tetzloff was sensational today, winning three events against one of the best teams in the country,” Hawke said.

Tetzloff took first in the 100 back (53.37), the 100 fly (53.16) and 200 IM (2:00.43).

Auburn also took the top spot in the 400 free relay behind the swims of Erin Falconer(51.07), Julie Meynen (50.10), Ashton Ellzey (50.81) and Jessica Merritt (50.76). Ellzey (22.84) and Meynen (23.19) also took second and third, respectively, in the 50 free while Meynen was second in the 100 free (49.24).

In the diving well, sophomore Alison Maillard swept the springboard events, winning the 1-meter with a season-best score of 289.88 and the 3-meter with a 313.43.

Auburn remains at home next week, facing Alabama at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Martin Aquatics Center. The meet will be the final home dual meet for Auburn’s senior class.