Above video courtesy: Texas A&M Athletics
The Texas A&M men’s swimming & diving team has developed a big core of international swimmers – and lately, their top performers have been primarily foreign-based swimmers.
The team has swimmers from 8 countries, making up 9 out of 30 athletes listed on their 2015-2016 roster. Countries represented are:
- Turkey
- Spain
- Mexico
- Canada
- Croatia
- Greece
- UK
- United States
The list includes sophomore Mauro Castillo from Zacatecas, Mexico, who was one of the team’s two swimmers that qualified for NCAAs this year, and he came away from the season with school records in both the 100 (52.65) and 200 (1:54.35) yard breaststrokes.
The team’s two NCAA-qualifying divers, Sam Thornton (UK) and Tyler Henschel (Canada) are also internationals, meaning that 75% of the team’s lineup for the NCAA Championships hailed from outside of the United States.
Unfortunate that A&M can’t fill there roster with our own boys. Great school without a doubt. Makes one wonder.
It’s too bad they’ve brought in student-athletes from all over the world yet the men’s program continues to be light years away from the success of their female counterparts, who are equally as diverse in their roster make up.
Best of luck to these young men, I hope they and their coaches are able to find a winning tradition and give the state of Texas more than one quality men’s program.