A&M-Texas Women to Revive Rivalry Series in 2013; Men Still Holding Out

The Texas-Texas A&M women’s swimming rivalry in the last few years before the Aggies left the Big 12 was one of the best rivalries in college swimming. Conference championship meets were decided by a handful of points, and there was plenty of jawing back-and-forth, but not so much as to diminish the respect (between the swimmers at least) on the different teams.

After A&M bolted for the SEC in 2012-2013, though, the entire relationship between the two schools soured in a bad way. The schools broke off years-long traditions of competition across-the-board, even in sports like swimming where there wasn’t big money on the line.

In the fall of 2013, though, the rivalry will be renewed. A&M released its 2013-2014 schedule today, and their second intercollegiate meet of the season will be hosting the Texas Longhorns in College Station. Note that Texas women’s head coach Carol Capitani was an assistant at Georgia in 1999 during their NCAA title season when Texas A&M women’s head coach Steve Bultman was an associate head coach there, and perhaps that history helped repair the rivalry between these two top-10 programs. That meet will be held on Friday, October 18th, making it the first scheduled head-to-head competition between the two schools since A&M joined the SEC

Note that the A&M men, who have also released their schedule, don’t have Texas on it. They’ll swim only 6 meets prior to the SEC Championships – a typically very sparse competition schedule – that includes Incarnate Word, Missouri, Georgia, LSU, and SMU.

Before that, A&M will travel to Nashville to face Vanderbilt for the first time since joining the SEC. After welcoming in Texas a week later, they will go to another old Big 12 (and new SEC) foe Missouri for a dual in Columbia on November 1st.

After a few years of hopping around to different invitationals in Atlanta and Houston, among other places, A&M this year will host their own Texas A&M Invitational – something they had gotten away from the past few years – from November 21st-23rd. That begins a run of 5-straight home meets.

They’ll resign to a month of training before hosting Rice just before Christmas; after the break, they get to show-off against the defending NCAA Champions Georgia in a rematch of the top two teams in the SEC last year. Aside from Texas, that will be the Aggies’ only real challenge in dual meet competition this coming season.

They then go on a roll of five meets in 8 days, preparing for the dragged-out SEC Championships, as they host SMU on January 11th, Houston and new coach Rich Murphy on January 16th, and LSU on January 18th.

The Aggies will then have one final tuneup against North Texas on February 1st, with the SEC Championships set to begin in Athens, Georgia at the University of Georgia from February 18th-22nd.

The season will end at the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, where the Aggies, who hardly lost anything from their #4 team last year, will hope for the first top three finish in school history.

The full A&M women’s 2013-2014 schedule is directly below, with the men’s schedule to follow.

Date Opponent Location Time (CT) Results Media
Sat, Oct 05 ASA Open Water Collegiate Championships Austin, Texas TBA
Sat, Oct 12 Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. TBA
Fri, Oct 18 Texas Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Fri, Nov 01 Missouri Columbia, Mo. TBA
Thu, Nov 21 –
Sat, Nov 23
Texas A&M Invitational Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) All Day
Fri, Dec 20 Rice Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Fri, Jan 10 Georgia Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Sat, Jan 11 SMU Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Thu, Jan 16 Houston Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Sat, Jan 18 LSU Baton Rouge, La. TBA
Sat, Feb 01 North Texas Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Tue, Feb 18 –
Sat, Feb 22
SEC Championship Athens, Ga. All Day
Thu, Feb 27 –
Sun, Mar 02
Speedo Sectionals Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) All Day
Thu, Mar 06 –
Sat, Mar 08
American Short Course Championships Austin, Texas All Day
Mon, Mar 10 –
Wed, Mar 12
NCAA Zone Diving Championship Minneapolis, Minn. All Day
Thu, Mar 20 –
Sat, Mar 22
NCAA Championship Minneapolis, Minn. All Day

Men’s Schedule:

Date Opponent Location Time (CT) Results Media
Thu, Oct 17 Incarnate Word San Antonio, Texas TBA
Fri, Nov 01 Missouri Columbia, Mo. TBA
Thu, Nov 21 –
Sat, Nov 23
Texas A&M Invitational Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) All Day
Fri, Jan 10 Georgia Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) TBA
Sat, Jan 18 LSU Baton Rouge, La. TBA
Fri, Jan 24 SMU Dallas, Texas TBA
Tue, Feb 18 –
Sat, Feb 22
SEC Championship Athens, Ga. All Day
Thu, Feb 27 –
Sun, Mar 02
Speedo Sectionals Student Recreation Center Natatorium (College Station) All Day
Thu, Mar 06 –
Sat, Mar 08
American Short Course Championships Austin, Texas All Day
Mon, Mar 10 –
Wed, Mar 12
NCAA Zone Diving Championship Minneapolis, Minn. All Day
Thu, Mar 27 –
Sat, Mar 29
NCAA Championship Austin, Texas All Day

5
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

5 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
The Grand Inquisitor
11 years ago

Stanford women have the Nov -21-23 TA&M Invite on their schedule. Who else will be there?

The Grand Inquisitor
Reply to  Braden Keith
11 years ago

Braden – Thanks for the effort to check. At minimum this meet ought to offer some interesting Aggies v Cardinal matchups at a time both teams will be trying to put up qualifying marks.

Kara Forbis
11 years ago

Carol was a coach at UGA, not a swimmer, in 1999.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »