Mar 23, 2019
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team placed 13th at after four days of action at the 2019 NCAA Championships on Saturday at the Jamail Texas Swim Center.
The four-time defending Southeastern Conference Champion Aggies nearly doubled their point total on Saturday with 70.5 points. For the meet, Texas A&M scored 142.5 points. Stanford won the NCAA Championship with 456.5 points, followed by California (419), Michigan (314), Louisville (235) and Texas (190.5) to round out the top five.
"We had a great day," Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. "We had a great night last night and a great day today, so I was really pleased with the way we finished.
Leading the Aggies' scoring, as she had for the past two days, was senior Sydney Pickrem, who finished her illustrious career with a school record 11 top-eight individual finishes. On Saturday, Pickrem picked up her second runner-up finish of the meet with a silver medal in the 200-yard breaststroke in a lifetime-best time of 2:03.65, trailing only four-time NCAA 200 breast champion and NCAA and American record holder Lilly King of Indiana (2:02.90). Also contributing big points in the race for the Aggies was junior Anna Belousova, who placed seventh in 2:07.05.
"Sydney has had more top eight finishes in individual races than anyone else we've ever had, which is pretty special," Bultman said. "That was a heck of a swim tonight. She was racing the American record holder to the end, and, like Bethany (Galat) last year, she was getting close but can't quite get her."
Senior diver Alaïs Kalonji was spectacular in her final competition for the Maroon & White with a sixth-place finish with a score of 305.30.
The Aggies had a pair of sophomore finalists in the 200-yard butterfly with Jing Quah and Taylor Pike. Quah placed eight in a 1:53.61, while Pike took 11th in 1:54.33.
Texas A&M received valuable points from sophomore Haley Yelle, who posted a huge lifetime best swim of 16:01.01 in the 1650 freestyle to place 14th overall.
The Aggies closed out the night with the foursome of senior Claire Rasmus, senior Sydney Pickrem, junior Golf Sapianchai and junior Raena Eldridge placing 13th in a season-best 3:13.99.