Shaine Casas Breaks Aaron Peirsol’s Pool Record as A&M Sweeps Ohio State

Texas A&M vs. Ohio State

  • November 18th (LCM) & November 19th (SCY)
  • Unscored LCM on Friday, scored SCY on Saturday
  • Texas A&M Rec Center Natatorium, College Station, Texas
  • LCM Results
  • SCY Results
  • Team Scores:
    • Texas A&M Men 153-Ohio State men 147
    • Texas A&M Women 174 – Ohio State women 109

As many teams are doing around the country this season, Texas A&M and Ohio State snuck in an evening of long course racing on Friday ahead of next summer’s Olympic Trials before settling in to a more traditional yards format on Saturday. Friday’s long course session was unscored, aside  while on Saturday the Aggies swept the Buckeyes in College Station.

The highlight of the long course meet was a 54.43 in the 100 meter backstroke from Texas A&M sophomore Shaine Casas, which broke the old Pool Record of 54.89 held by Aaron Peirsol in 2007. At the time of his Pool Record-setting swim, Piersol was the World Record holder in that event, which he held for all but 7 days over a 12 year period starting in 2004.

Incoming Ohio State transfer Cameron Craig also had strong long course swims, including a lifetime best in the 50 free of 22.75. That undercut his previous fastest of 23.35 from this summer. He also swam a 53.43 in the 100 fly, which is about a second slower than he swam at Nationals in August.

When the points began to count on Saturday, Casas kept up his winning ways, taking the top spot in the 200 yard back (1:44.78) ahead of a 2-3-4-5 finish from Ohio State; and another in the 100 yard back in 48.04 ahead of another pack of Buckeyes.

Among the big winners for the Ohio State men was Paul Delakis, who topped both the 200 yard free (1:37.16) and 500 yard free (4:32.27). In both cases, he beat-out Texas A&M’s Mark Theall by narrow margins (1:37.53/4:32.50) – Theall finished 7th at NCAAs last season in the 500 free.

While Ohio State had the upper-hand for most of the meet, a disqualification of their A & B 400 yard free relays, including an A relay that touched first by about a second, wound up costing them the meet.

The women’s side wasn’t a close in the team scoring, with the Aggies running away with the win for the 2nd-straight season. A&M had 4 women with multiple individual event wins; that includes sophomore Emma Carlton, who won both the 100 yard backstroke and 100 yard butterfly in almost-identical times of 53.83 and 53.82, respectively. Anna Belousova swept the breaststroke races for the Aggie women in 1:02.33 and 2:16.48, respectively.

For Ohio State’s women, the big scorer was Molly Kowal, who won the 1000 free early in the meet in 9:59.21 and the 500 free in 4:52.65. Kowal is the top returning swimmer in the NCAA this season in the women’s mile, though that event wasn’t contested this weekend. She swam 8:53.00 in the 800 free in long course as well.

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
4 years ago

I loved this guy at Summer Nationals – I beleive he is the real deal . Time will tell

2020 Olympic Trials
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
4 years ago

Can’t wait to see

Swamswim
4 years ago

It is interesting to note, one of the OSU girls took off about -.3 reaction on the relay (according to touch pads), but no DQ.. but then the same happens on the men’s side and the video proves it wrong, but still a DQ?

I think there were malfunctioning pads at this meet.

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Swamswim
4 years ago

Looked up results on Hytek. Lists Delakis as leaving .03 second early as well as Ohio State’s 3rd leg of their “A” squad as leaving even earlier (0.37). Also not mentioned in the article was that A&M’s “B” relay was DQ’d as well. From the results, it appears that Ohio State needs to work more on this aspect of their relays. Let’s accept the results & move on! Great meet no matter. Gig em forever👍👍

PASWIM
Reply to  Texas A&M Swim Fan
4 years ago

@A&M fan, I think you’re underwstimating just how early 0.37 seconds is. If an official missed that at a summer league meet, they would be disbarred, let alone NCAA completion…

Swimfan
Reply to  Texas A&M Swim Fan
4 years ago

Watched the video of the race. The 3rd swimmer on the ‘A’ relay actually had a very SLOW takeoff. Both of his feet were still clearly on the blocks when Craig touched. But he was called for a -.37 DQ which would be a HUGE DQ. Something seems fishy.

Former Buckeye
Reply to  Swimfan
4 years ago

Haven’t seen the footage of the relay, but the reason for the reaction times being off could be due to how they did their relay exchanges. Often, OSU swimmers begin with one foot on the wedge, one behind the wedge. In their approach, the rear foot steps over the wedge to the front of the block, leaving no weight directly on the block for a brief moment. If TAMU has weight sensors on top of their blocks to check for false starts, it could potentially cause some issues with how reaction times are recorded.

At the end of the day, the electronic components are only part of it, and the officials (as they should) have the final say on the… Read more »

DBSwims
4 years ago

Wild though: Casas and Grevers dethrone olympic champ, Ryan Murphy, in 2020 US OT, just like Plummer and Murphy did to Grevers at 2016 US OT. Prob wont happen, but its a wild through

Oldswimfan
Reply to  DBSwims
4 years ago

Wild thought. Casas and Ress dethrone both Olympic champs

Pvdh
Reply to  Oldswimfan
4 years ago

Ress doesn’t have the goods

Buddy
4 years ago

Looking at the results of all the reaction times throughout the meet, they seem to be kinda screwed up already. I’d be curious to see videos of the multiple DQ relays

Get Got
Reply to  Buddy
4 years ago

They’re on youtube. 100% not a fluke.

Mack
Reply to  Buddy
4 years ago

YouTube channel: tamuswim – hard to tell but Delakis’ takeoff is definitely close

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Mack
4 years ago

I was there & I was concentrating on watching the “touch” & his takeoff from the blocks & it honestly looked like he left a tad bit early to me. It was a heck of a race for both teams though. The crowd was “roaring” throughout each leg of the swim. Really great atmosphere for opening meet of the year!!

Swimmer
4 years ago

Don’t sleep on him in the 100 back trials this summer

Mack
Reply to  Swimmer
4 years ago

I don’t think anyone was going to sleep on him considering he was the second fastest American last summer

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Mack
4 years ago

Hahaha

bear drinks beer
Reply to  Mack
4 years ago

And his time was faster than what Murphy did at the World Championships final.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  bear drinks beer
4 years ago

exacte

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Mack
4 years ago

lolll

Lane 8
Reply to  Swimmer
4 years ago

Will be just like 2016 with three swimmers contending for spots: Murphy and Grevers, but Casas instead of Plummer.

PhillyMark
4 years ago

Top 2 400 free relays got deek’ed for OSU?! Thats the last event right? Looks like they just needed a couple of points to secure the victory. Thats a hard one to stomach

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, …

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