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Texas A&M Women Still Rising with Program-High 3rd Place at NCAAs

2017 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Texas A&M continues to move up in the ranks, reaching new heights at the 2017 NCAA Championships. The Aggies finished 3rd place overall, marking the highest NCAA meet finish in program history. With that, they’ve continued to build on their momentum after earning their first SEC title and a program-high 4th place finish in 2016.

While some teams face challenges with tapering a second time for NCAAs so soon after their respective conference meets, the Aggies performed very well at the NCAA meet after earning back-to-back titles at the 2017 SEC Championships.

Despite not having any event winners, the Aggies team depth propelled them to success. Their IM group has been a shining example of this all season. After making up half of the final in the 200 IM and almost half of the 400 IM at SECs, the Aggies were able to pick up big points once again on the national stage, as they had at 3 scorers in both the 200 IM and 400 IM at NCAAs. Both Sydney Pickrem and Bethany Galat earned All-American status in both of those events.

Relay-wise, the Aggies scored in all 5 races. They earned a top 8 finish in the 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay, and 400 free relay, while earning 9th place finishes in the 200 free relay and 800 free relay. Their highest relay finishes came in the medley relays, as they took the runner-up spot in both.

All-in-all, the Aggies finished the 2017 NCAA Championships with 8 All-Americans:

In addition, they had 4 swimmers earn Honorable Mention All-American status:

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SwimDawg
7 years ago

Steve has done an incredible job coaching this team and creating a true team-first concept. As another poster noted, it’s clear that coaching makes a difference as they’ve improved from “inside out” by taking lesser-known recruits and turning them into household names and Olympians. It should be noted that Carol Capitani is also getting the Texas women back in the fold nationally after some very tough, lean years. While both Steve and Carol are fantastic coaches in their own right, a common thread is that they both worked alongside Jack Bauerle and Harvey Humphries at UGA for several years and learned a lot about managing college kids.

DontMessWTexas
Reply to  SwimDawg
7 years ago

The difference is that Carol had some very talented swimmers that didn’t even make NCAAs. For example Carrozza was a 1:44 high school swimmer, Schneider, Hansen to name a few.

SwimCanada
Reply to  DontMessWTexas
7 years ago

Surgery/injuries. Uninformed speculative comments are ridiculous.

NM Coach
7 years ago

Steve Bultman does a FANTASTIC job! Congratulations to your entire staff! Gig em!

Bigly
Reply to  NM Coach
7 years ago

Finally. A mention of the coach. Thanks.

OldArmy
7 years ago

What’s really impressive about this 3rd place finish is that of the four recruiting classes that made up this year’s A&M team, only ONE of those recruiting classes appeared on the annual swimswam recruiting class rankings for that year. That speaks volumes for the quality of the Aggie program. In addition, the Aggies have managed to finish 4th or better at NCAAs each of the last 5 years… Only California and Georgia can match that claim. Maybe the pundits will stop short-changing this program during the season … but I doubt it. I’m beginning to think the Aggies like if this way. They prefer earning their respect in the pool every spring. It’s what they do.

Tigerswim22
7 years ago

Texas A&M continues to excel without being one of the favorite destinations for the tip-top of the American high school recruits (you know, Cal, Stanford, Georgia, Texas). However, the Aggie coaching staff seems to have a knack for successfully judging both talent and potential and then developing those young ladies in a very admirable way. When A&M joined the SEC, who would have predicted they’d be knocking off Georgia and Florida and Aurburn at the SEC Championships? Now they come back from that win and swim great at the NCAAs. Excellent performances by some very talented and much improved athletes. Team pride and spirit is strong. Really great job of coaching. Very solid program.

leen
Reply to  Tigerswim22
7 years ago

I agree, always underrated by the swimming community but they always prove themselves.

SwimGeek
Reply to  Tigerswim22
7 years ago

Great comment and all true.

1anda2
Reply to  Tigerswim22
7 years ago

Saw that this Poll is still up on the main page and it just reinforces the under the radar status of A&M.

WHO’S GOING TO WIN WOMEN’S NCAAS?
Stanford
Cal
Georgia
University of Texas
NC State
other

SwimDAD
Reply to  Tigerswim22
7 years ago

I agree. Stanford is loaded and continues to reload with top tier talent. But, I think the Texas A&M secret about the coaching success and the girls swimming faster is getting out. Of this years SwimSwam’s “Top 20 Recruits”, only Stanford had more commits (5) followed by A&M at 3 and USC at 3.

Attila the Runt
7 years ago

Great swims. How ’bout some credit to the coaches!

samuel huntington
Reply to  Attila the Runt
7 years ago

I know we disagree on this, but the credit goes to the swimmers!

Brian M
Reply to  samuel huntington
7 years ago

Always is the same. Good swim, good swimmer. Bad swim, bad coach.

Kate
Reply to  samuel huntington
7 years ago

¿por qué no los dos?

Attila the Runt
Reply to  samuel huntington
7 years ago

That’s like saying credit goes to the patient, and not also the doctor. It’s odd how we credit certain coaches (deservedly) all the time —- Eddie being the classic example with the “taper magic” — but other coaches are never mentioned, or worse (like McKeever) run down. I’m sure coaches are human, have at least a little ego, and would like a well-deserved pat on the back. And without that, how do we recruit and retain top coaches? Ask any swimmer — does the coach deserve any credit? I think you’ll find their answer will be yes.

Mikeh
7 years ago

Gig ’em!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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