FORT WORTH, Texas – The 25th-ranked Trinity Tiger men's swimming & diving team faced off against their most formidable opponent to date in Texas Christian University, and the men fought hard but came up short by a final score of 238-62.
While this loss wasn't necessarily modest, this meet lands in the middle of the winter training for the Tigers, and yet they still managed to pull out some impressive swims. The men's 200 medley relay managed to beat one of TCU's teams with a time of 1:33.94, edging them by just over half a second. This relay was made up of
Jack Hester (Round Rock, Texas / Cedar Ridge,
Daniel Apostol (Billings, Mont. / Central Catholic),
Nathan Perez (Alpharetta, Ga. / Johns Creek), and
Trace Briones (San Antonio, Texas / Health Careers). This time was only around a second off of what Trinity's time was in Chicago, proving the team's strong efforts in this dual meet.
Nickolas Rotolo (Houston, Texas / Cairo American College), although not beating any TCU swimmers, was just barely touched out in the 200 fly. He went a 1:56.68, one of the sophomore's best dual meet times of the season. In the 50 free, Briones and Apostol again showed how on-point they were at this meet with second and third place finishes respectively, beating two TCU swimmers in the process. They additionally both swam their best dual meet times of the season. The 200 back went similarly for the Tigers, with Hester and
Alejandro Aceves (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) beating a TCU swimmer by several seconds.
John Key (El Paso, Texas / Franklin) showed his classic breastroke dominance in the 200 breastroke, earning second place in the event with a time of 2:10.23, beating the TCU swimmer in third by just a second. The 200 IM proved to be one of the Tigers' dominant events, with Aceves, Key, and
Theodore Ho (Sugar Land, Texas / Clements) coming in third, fourth, and fifth, beating a TCU swimmer in the process.
Overall, while not a win for Trinity, the team still fought hard for some fast swims against an incredibly fast D-I team. The Tigers can look forward to seeing the competitive skills learned here pay off at conference.
Coach Speak
"We had a lot of fun today at TCU today," said Head Coach
Cathleen Pruden. "We haven't competed since before Thanksgiving, so I'm glad we got back into meet mode before we head to Kentucky this week! This has been a very challenging week of training, but we still saw a few dual meet best times today, and all around saw some great mindset. Despite facing a Division 1 opponent, the men stayed in their own lane and controlled what they could. I'm excited to build on this for the next 6 weeks!"
Looking Forward
Beginning on Friday of next week, the Tigers will compete in the Colonel Classic, an invitational in Kentucky at the same pool they will swim conference in. This will be a great opportunity for the team to hone in their events they'll swim at the end of the season and to get used to the SAA pool.
