It's that time again. Some links to get you started.

Texas A&M Athletics Release

SwimSwam Women's Preview

CollegeSwimming Men's Preview

BTHO SEC's!

To round out the previews:

CollegeSwimming Women's Preview

SwimSwam Men's Preview

Anxious to see how our freshmen women do in the first SEC championships. I expect/hope to see Bratton, Gastaldello, and Galat racing for medals. Women divers have been ordinary so far.

The men really haven't swum well until recently. Castillo broke out to show he is a top breaststroker. We have a very good diver capable of winning.

Results from men's time trials this morning

Freshman Brock Bonetti 1:43.13 in the 200 backstroke. A new school record!

Bolleter 19.64, Gonzales 19.82 in the 50 free

Ayar 47.61 in the 100 fly

Not a good start for the Aggie men divers this morning. Henschel's last three dives were below 50 pts each and he finished prelims in 9th. I don't remember if top 8 or more get to finals.

I think I remembered last year the top 8 went the finals and score from 32 points to 22 points.
The 9th to 24th place score from 20 points to 1 points
The Aggies score 48 points as follows
Tyler 9th - 20 points
Colton 12th - 15 points
Zachary 15th - 13 points

I think we'll find out in a hurry tonight how the teams are swimming with the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relays.

NO DQs please!

The men finish a disappointing 9th in both relays. Their times were easily season bests but they are far off the top teams. Castillo appears to not be a sprinter as his split was about slower than all but one breaststroker. The mens 800 free relay earned an NCAA B time. In spite of the two 9th place finishes the men are 6th overall because of diving points.

The women are swimming very well - finishing 2nd in both relays. Gastaldello was super fast in her 50 fly split. I'd say she is the new version of Paige Miller. The 800 free relay was 2nd, losing only to Georgia as we'd expect. The 800 relay just beat Florida by .08 secs. Looking at the splits A&M was .07 behind Florida at the 775 and Sarah Henry beat the Florida swimmer by .14 on the last 25 to win. Must have been a great race. Ibanez was not on the relay - she has not swum fast in months so is she still not 100%? The women are in 6th but not far from anyone in front of them. LSU is in 1st because of diving.

Link for today's results

The back half of the women's medley relay was stupid fast. Gastaldello is the real deal.

That our 800 free relay could go 7:00 without Ibanez continues to prove how freaking incredible a coach Bultman is. Henry was the only real 'star power' on that whole relay and they beat every team they had any possible chance of beating. Terrific start for the ladies.

Hope the divers shake off the jitters. We should have been much better than we were today. Hope those points don't bite us in the ass later -- on both sides.

I "watched" Henschel's prelims via Divemeets. He was perhaps 10-15 pts below his average on his last three dives. He just must have been off yesterday. Divers are like that. Hopefully he comes back on 3M and 10M.

Looking forward to today with individual races. Women's 200 IM will show us a lot about where we are. Galat was 1:56 at Art Adamson. How fast will she go today? Bratton also swimming. How will she do in her first money race as an Aggie?

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Gastaldello is the real deal.

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I even like her name. She must have a nickname on the team - they can't call her that all the time?

I'd vote for Gassy. So many different meanings.

Article on SwimSwam about Gastaldello's MR fly split.

http://swimswam.com/beryl-gastaldello-posts-fastest-womens-50-fly-in-history-we-think-maybe-2/

Can Kelli Benjamin and Sycerika McMahon go faster in the 200 Medley relay at NCAA 2015?
Kelli split 25.03 last night. At the Art Adamson meet she split 25.16 and last year's NCAA she went 24.63.
McMahon split 27.16 last night and at Art Adamson she went 27.48.
They were less than a second off the record from last year 1:35.59. BTW Breeja split was 26.21 at NCAA last year.

The 1.44.41 split by Ellen Quirke must have been encouraging. It was the 6th best split of the night. It seems like Ellen Quirke and Sarah Gibson are very much improved this year.
Looking forward to some great swims today

I'm told Quirke and Oliver were switched on the results sheet. Great swims by all four ladies though.

I too hope Benjamin can get under 25 at NCAA's and that McMahon can get a tiny bit faster. You hate to be dependent on Gastaldello dropping sub-22.5 fly splits but it's a nice luxury to know it's possible.

Live Results

Gastaldello hit parade continues -- 21.95 50, just .08 off the leader. Smoliga, the NCAA and SEC champ, doesn't even final. Three freshmen in the top 11 of the IM. Not bad.

I'd say the morning was about what might have been expected.

Men
- no Aggie men will score in the 500. We have gone back to our past of no distance guys.
- Bolleter popped a great 50 at 19.48. Is that a lifetime best? He was fast in the relay Tuesday so he has tons of speed
- No Aggie men in the A or B final. Duplechain just 0.19 secs out of the B final. This event shows just how fast mens swimming is now. It takes 1:46 in the conference just to make the B final.

Women
- Henry had fastest time in the 500. Gibson 6th. Not sure what happened to Quirke. She added 8 secs and finished 37th. I suspect this was tactical and a coaches decision. Her seed time was not fast enough for the B final.
- Malone and Galat in the A final of the 200 IM. Bratton didn't go fast enough. Her seed time would have put her in the A final. Florida puts three in the A final.
- Gastaldello continues with her show - seeded 3rd with a 21.95. Bosma in 8th.
- Ibanez not in form, based on her 50.

I think for the women finals we will see Georgia, Florida, and A&M separate from the rest. GA will score big in the 500, FL in the 200IM, A&M scores in all of them.

The top 24 score. Two men will in the IM.

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The top 24 score. Two men will in the IM.

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I just noticed that. I adjusted my post. Not many meets score the top 24.

With 2 rounds remaining in 1m prelims, Hudkins leads and O'Neal and Hattie inside the top 16.

1 round to go, Hudkins 1st, O'Neal 11th, Hattie 17th.

Hudkins top seed to finals. O'Neal 16th, Hattie 17th. Georgia gets one in A Final and no other points. Florida 10th and 15th.

Nice job by the divers to get us into scoring positions.....

Aggie women move into 2nd place, a good bit behind Georgia and ahead of Florida. The rest of the field is fighting for 4th.

Georgia as expected dominated 500 free. Four Aggie women scored points in the 500 with Henry finishing 3rd.

Very tight race for 1st in the 200 IM - just .4 between 1st and 4th (Galat). It looks like Galat maybe went out a bit fast - since she was 1st after fly. But a very good swim in any case. Six Aggies scored - and all were sub-2:00. We are a very good IM team. Florida was 1-2-3.

Hudkins didn't hold on to first in the 1M - but finished 5th. 3 Aggies scored points. The LSU winner - Bettridge, dove for Lake Travis HS where my kids went to high school.

Not sure about Steve's choice to lead off the 200 free relay with Galat. Not a bad swim, but it seems we probably had another woman who was sub 23 (Ibanez?). We missed 3rd by .09 secs. Great split by Gastaldello and Bosma strong again.

For the men - Best swim was Bolleter's 19.55 for 5th in the 50.

Otherwise the men are in 8th overall. I don't see the men moving up much Thursday unless Henschel has a good day on the 3M. None of the events Thursday are strengths for us. We have just three swimmers seeded in the top 24 of the three swimming events.

Ibanez finally had a good swim - 1:45.94 for 4th seed tonight. Aggies well positioned in 200 free with six scorers. The shorter the race the less dominant Georgia is. GA has four women in the A final of the 400IM. They will score a ton of points in that event. Henry in it, maybe to win it. Bratton a bit slow in prelims; her seed time would have gotten her in the A final.

Gastaldello had another great swim - tied for 2nd fastest in 100 fly. She might be a better 100 swimmer than Aljan - who was a better 50 swimmer.

Henschel again finished 9th in prelims, just out of the A final. He had an awful 1st dive, then dove very well after that. He missed 8th by .7 pts. That is just one score from one judge in the entire competition.

No relays tonight at all. Georgia's women will pull further away tonight. A&M should have a good night and might gain a bit over Florida with more swimmers in scoring positions.

Is it me or have the women's distance races across the board just not been as fast this year? Winning times seem much slower than previous years.

The divers are clearly snakebitten. Three ninths in four events is not good.

You might be right about the distance events, though Georgia is just as dominant as ever. It interesting to see how much faster 17 year old Katie Ledecky is than everyone in the US (and World) right now. Ledecky would have won the 500 by 9 secs.

400IM in previous years would have had Cammille and Henry at sub 4:05 with another swimmer or two. This year - I don't see that happening. The girls are swimming fast in prelims, and most don't have a big drop coming in finals. I think Bratton will have a good swim - as she probably made a freshman mistake by not swimming fast enough.

The divers are off. Henschel had 3 70 point dives, and another with 69. But his 1st dive was just 30 pts - it must have been a near failed dive. The top guys will add the 4 1/2 to their dive list for finals tonight. Very few had it for prelims. Scores will go up.

How good is the Auburn pool? I haven't been - but don't think it is in the same class as Tennessee, A&M, or Missouri.

It's a solid pool. They've hosted NCAA's multiple times since the turn of the century, including 2012, and there have been plenty of records set there. I just found it odd that the distances from 200 up seem a 'stroke' slow.

OK - Gastaldello drops another 1.2 secs to win, and beats a 7 year old SEC record from Christine Magnusson. Incredible swim.

Props to Emily Neubert who won the C final with a 52.87 - nice drop from prelims and that has to be a lifetime best. 2nd fastest Aggie in the 100 fly. 68 pts in 100 fly for the Ags.

Sarah Henry gets 2nd in the 400 IM. Bratton drops 5 secs to win the B final - her time would have been 7th in the A final.

I guess that sufficiently answers who's next in Bultman's ever-growing resume of world level superstars. That is one incredible swim. Would like to see one of the other freshmen bust out in similar fashion in the last two days as well.

The ladies swam very well. Sarah Gibson with a strong swim in the 200 free to get 4th. Meredith Oliver was actually the fastest Aggie with a great swim. She won the B final with a time good enough for 3rd overall!

Aggies pull away from Florida, as Georgia pulls away from everyone.

I'm happy to see Luke Shaw swimming so well. He's a 4A Alamo Heights kid I saw swim when my youngest son was swimming at Lake Travis. Shaw has had a really strong senior year after improving continuously at A&M.

The men are in 9th place. Pretty dismal to only be ahead of Kentucky. The men should get some points tomorrow in 100 back and 100 breast and overtake LSU and possibly South Carolina. Aggies seeded ahead of both of them in the 400 medley relay.

Only one platform diver on the roster????

I guess so.

Kind of sad only squeaking a single breaststroker in the A final. Seems like we've owned that stroke for nearly a decade.