Freestyler Monica Gumina Transfers from Arizona to Texas A&M

After a season-and-a-half at the University of Arizona, Monica Gumina will transfer to Texas A&M University for the 2019-2020 season. The move will bring her back closer to home: she attended high school in The Woodlands, Texas: a northern-Houston suburb that is just over an hour from College Station, where Texas A&M is located.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6_4MANlrR9/

Gumina is a 5-time individual Texas High School State Champion. As a sophomore, swimming for College Park High School, she won the Texas 6A State Championship in the 100 free in 50.21 and was 2nd in the 200 free in 1:47.27. Class 6A in Texas includes the state’s biggest high schools, with all but 2 being public schools, with some schools have as many as 6,600 students. As a junior, she transferred to nearby Concordia Lutheran High School, a private school with fewer than 600 students. There, she won 4 more individual state titles in TAPPS – a separate league for most of the state’s private schools. As a junior, she won the 100 free (51.25) and 200 free (1:50.42), and as a senior she won the 50 free (23.30) and 500 free (4:51.57).

Best Times in Yards:

• 50 free – 23.20
• 100 free – 49.95
• 200 free – 1:46.37
• 500 free – 4:46.57

Gumina’s transfer announcement comes after having the best meet of her college career in December at the Minnesota Invitational. There, she had arguably the best meet of her collegiate career: she went a best time in the 200 free (dropping 9-tenths of a second) and the 500 free (dropping 1.2 seconds). Her previous best times in those events were from Winter Juniors in the middle of her senior year of high school.

Gumina was a member of the Arizona team for the Pac-12 Championships, where her best finish was 32nd in the 200 free. Her time in that race of 1:49.35 was a second slower than her previous season-best time from an early-February dual meet.

The Aggies badly need to rebuild their freestyle depth: a challenge that last year dropped them to 13th at the NCAA Championships after 12 consecutive seasons in the top 10 (and 6 consecutive seasons in the top 4). Gumina’s season-best time in the 200 free is faster than anybody at A&M has gone this season, and to exacerbate that situation, the team’s top 3 swimmers in the 200 free will all graduate after this year. Gumina will have 2 years of eligibility remaining for the Aggies.

The Arizona women finished 14th at last year’s NCAA Championships, while the Texas A&M women finished 13th.

Gumina will begin class at Texas A&M on Monday, the start of the semester, but won’t be eligible to compete for the Aggies until the fall of 2020.