Connor Foote Plans to Return to Texas A&M for 2026-2027 Season After Redshirt Year

Texas A&M sprinter Connor Foote plans to return to Texas A&M for the 2026-2027 season after redshirting this year, the program’s head coach Blaire Anderson told SwimSwam this week while the team prepares for the SEC Championships.

Foote is the school record holder in the 50 free (18.67), 100 free (41.38), and 100 fly (44.34), setting all three standards most recently at the 2025 SEC Championship meet. Including a 4th place finish in the 100 fly and a 5th place finish in the 50 free, he was the team’s #2 scorer at that meet as the Aggies finished 5th in Anderson’s first season as head coach.

The Aggies are without their top four scorers from last year’s meet for this year’s championships. Their top performer Baylor Nelson transferred to conference rivals Texas, while breaststroker Alex Sanchez and diver Allen Bottego both graduated.

Foote finished 10th in the 50 free, 25th in the 100 free, and 23rd in the 100 fly at the NCAA Championships.

Foote is sitting out this season to focus on an internship related to his construction science major. He is working as a Project Engineering Intern with ACO Mechanical Limited, based near his home in San Antonio. Over the summer, he took on another internship as a Project Engineer Intern with Balfour Beatty in Dallas.

While he has only competed once since the 2025 NCAA Championships last March, Anderson says he has continued to train and is preparing for the 2026 long course season.

That one meet was the U.S. Open in December and showed the strength of his training, as he swam best times in the 50 free (22.27 in prelims), 100 free (50.23 in prelims), and 50 fly (23.48 in prelims) in long course. That 50 free drop in long course was his first best time in that event since August 2022 at Junior Nationals, where he swam 22.98.

He is now the 11th-ranked American in the 50 meter free this year.