 "Photo: Patrick Clayton")
The Texas A&M men's swimming & diving team enters the 2009-2010 season looking to extend its streak of 14 years of Top 25 finishes at the NCAA Championships. Not only do the Aggies want to be at the NCAA Championships, but they want to return to the Top 10 in country for the first time since 1999.
"In our mind, the Top 10 is where we want to go, which has happened only one time during that stretch," said A&M Head Coach Jay Holmes. "We are trying to be Top 10, and that is what we are really shooting for. In our mind, we have been there and done that Top 15 thing."
The Aggies enter the new season with many new faces, including 13 freshmen that make up nearly half of the men's swimming and diving roster. Although the freshmen are still making the adjustment to collegiate level swimming, Holmes expects them to step up and help fill holes in the freestyle relays and distance races.
"We do have some holes at freestyle, but we are counting on some freshmen to step up," Holmes said. "We have had freshmen come in and do that before, and we have some freshmen who have a great opportunity and the capability to do that."
Also joining the Aggies for the 2009-2010 season will be interim diving coach Kevin Armstrong, a three-time Olympic coach. Armstrong will replace the 2009 Big 12 Championship Coach of the Meet, Kevin Wright, who was relieved of his duties on Oct. 2. Armstrong is the current overseer of the Woodlands Diving Academy, which has produced several diving champions at both the junior and senior levels.
"Everyone is really excited that he is here helping us," Holmes said. "He brings some real structure and a great game plan for our divers. Everyone knows his reputation and all the great divers he has had. It has really been a great thing for us and he has really just gotten started."
The biggest challenge facing the men's diving team this season will be replacing the winningest athlete in Texas A&M history, Eric Sehn.
In his four-year career with the Aggies, Sehn won 11 Big 12 Championship titles, was named Big 12 Diver of the Year three times, and was a three time All-American in all three diving disciplines. Sehn holds the school record in all three diving disciplines as well as the record for most points scored at the NCAA Championships with 151 total points.
"Replacing someone like [Eric] will be difficult and we will definitely miss him and his points," said senior diver Henry Stevens. "The best we can do is put in the work that we can and try to take advantage of the fact that he is still around to guide us for another year. I just hope that we can use his success to help us do what we need to do."
Helping to fill the void left by Sehn will be Stevens and sophomores Cam McLean and Grant Nel.
Stevens is a three year letterman who has contributed points in the Big 12 Championships the past three years by finishing seventh, eighth and ninth places in the 1 meter springboard. As a freshman, McLean posted points for the Aggies at the Big 12 Championships with a third place finish and at the NCAA Championships with and eighth place finish in the consolation bracket. Nel contributed at the NCAA Championships by finishing fourth place on the 3-meter springboard, two places ahead of Sehn who holds the A&M record in the event.
The men's swimming team returns four starters who set records last season in at least one event. Most notable include senior Jason Bergstrom and junior Balazs Makany.
Bergstrom, a two time All-American, holds the school record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 46.31 seconds that he set at the NCAA Championships. Bergstrom is also a part of the relay team that holds the school record in the 200 and 400- yard medley relays which were also set during the NCAA Championships.
Makany, a Hungary native, is a two-time Olympian who represented his country in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2004 Sydney Olympics. In his first year with the Aggies, Makany set four school records in the 100-yard Freestyle, 200-yard Freestyle, 400-yard Free Relay, and 400-yard Medley Relay.
The Aggies open their 2009 fall season at the Southwest Collegiate Plunge this weekend in Mansfield, Texas. Joining A&M at the meet will be Texas, Missouri and Southern Methodist University (SMU). The meet will provide the opportunity for the Aggies to gauge themselves against major Big 12 competitors Missouri and Texas who both finished ahead of the Aggies in the Big 12 Championships last year.
"The guys that we are going against this week are our main competition," Stevens said. "It is the main competition in the Big 12 and SMU is also a big competitor of ours during the season. In the beginning of the year and up until the championship meets we go to the meets and give it our all, but we are preparing for the end of the year. If the results aren't great, that doesn't mean at the end of the year we won't be ready."
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