Sept. 22, 2018
LAWRENCE, Kan.- The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team finished 5th overall in the first event of the year at the 2018 College Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Collegiate Open Water Championships on Saturday at Lone Star Lake.
"We're excited to start our season," said Texas A&M men's swimming and diving head coach Jay Holmes. "This 5k open water swim helps get our distance swimmers in the right mindset of training. It's a great venue and the weather was great. It's completely different than pool swimming, but it was a great way to get our season started and there are still a lot of ways we can get a whole lot better." said Holmes.
Sophomore Felipe Rizzo led the team, swimming in the lead pack for most of the 5,000-meter race. Rizzo finished 10th with a time of 59:56.04, less than a minute behind race winner Giovanni Gutierrez of Missouri.
"Felipe was in the lead pack the whole way, was in a fight with all those other guys for the lead," added Holmes. "Our other four guys were in the second pack. With open water, there's a lot of splashing and they're in there so tight, sometimes you can't see too much, so it was a good, tough swim. We're looking forward to our next couple of meets."
Freshman Lucas Stuart finished 20th overall, completing the two-lap race in 1:03:04.59. Sophomore Gus Karau swam the course in 1:03:13.63 to finish 25th. Freshman Mark Schnipenkoetter completed the event in 1:03:16.83, finishing 29th and junior Jake Gibbons was 32nd with a time of 1:03:23.68.