Maureen McLaine easily won the 1,000-yard freestyle, but after Texas A&M's dual swimming meet against Rice, the Aggie freshman was talking butterfly.
Butterflies, to be precise.
McLaine made her home debut as the eighth-ranked A&M women cruised past Rice in their first meet at the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium this season on Saturday afternoon.
The final score was a misleading 151-103 because the Aggies did not swim for points in the final two races, designating as exhibitions a pair of events that would have added 36 points to the A&M total and taken 25 away from the Owls.
Margin of victory didn't make any difference in this matchup. It was about getting the Aggies some outside competition and -- perhaps most of all -- performing in front of a home crowd.
A&M opened the season on the road for the Big 12 Relays, dual meets against Missouri and Texas, plus the Houston Invitational. The Aggies could have named Saturday's dual the Howdy Meet, because it was the first time at the home pool for A&M's big freshman class.
The Aggies also welcomed back a couple of seniors who missed all of last season because of injuries, Julia Wilkinson and Kristen Heiss. They won two races apiece, even though A&M shuffled its lineup to let swimmers compete in events that are not considered their best.
Times were not stressed, because the Aggies continued hard training this week instead of tapering off workouts as they would for more important meets.
A&M swimmers won 13 of the 14 events, so there was much to like. However, the team did lack cohesion while swaying during the Aggie War Hymn.
"It probably was the freshmen," McLaine said. "It was so exciting. I saw a couple of my classmates up in the stands. I loved it. I was so much looking forward to the first home meet."
Heiss, embracing her role as a team leader, refused to point fingers.
"We won't blame anybody," Heiss said with a laugh. "We're a team, so the whole team will take responsibility for those mistakes."
McLaine was a dynamite debutante in the second event. The Plano West High School product beat the second-place finisher by nearly 8 seconds in the 1,000 freestyle, posting a good in-training time of 9:57.64.
"I was really nervous," McLaine said. "Being a freshman, there's so many expectations and you want to make your team proud of you. I think this was a great way to start off. We were really looking forward to having a home meet. We didn't rest at all, so we weren't expecting best times or anything like that. Just to get out there and race, that was a really great feeling."
McLaine later finished second behind teammate Emily Neal in the 200 individual medley. McLaine had attended other A&M athletic events, singing the War Hymn and doing yells, but she said it was different when she lined up with her teammates on the pool deck before the meet.
"It's definitely more memorable and special," McLaine said. "It was fun getting to be part of the athletic atmosphere and experience that."
Wilkinson and Heiss are veterans of Student Rec Center meets, but they missed last year because of shoulder injuries. They showed little signs of rust against Rice, with Wilkinson taking the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, while Heiss won the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
"They're definitely our leaders in and out of the pool," A&M coach Steve Bultman said. "It's great to have them back. They worked very hard last year, even though they weren't competing with us during the college season, and that has paid off. They're both swimming very well."
Heiss out-touched teammate Sarah Woods in the 100, finishing in 50.70 seconds while Woods clocked 50.74.
"I think my favorite part, by far, after sitting out last year is just being back with the team and swimming for Texas A&M," Heiss said. "I'm really excited about the freshmen who came in and the upperclassmen who are returning. This group of girls is really special."
Wilkinson also swam the lead leg on the 400 freestyle relay team that concluded the meet by finishing first in a time of 3:29.44. The Aggies swept the top three spots in the opening 200 medley relay with the victory going to the team of Heiss, Alia Atkinson, Ella Doerge and Brenham's Maria Sommer.
Senior Melissa Hain also won two individual races for the Aggies, taking the 200 butterfly and 200 breaststroke. A&M's other victories came from Doerge in the 100 backstroke, Tess Simpson in the 200 backstroke and Atkinson in the 500 freestyle.
Rice's only win was supplied by Pam Zelnick in the 100 breaststroke.
The Aggies will take a holiday break and then resume training in preparation to host national power Auburn and Southern Methodist on Jan. 9.
Notice about comments:
Theeagle.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. theeagle.com cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not theeagle.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Aggiesports.com is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends’ recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality and more. If you have posted here before you’ll need to sign up again, and if you’ve never posted start now by signing up! If you've already registered for the new comments on www.theeagle.com then just use your Eagle username to log in and start commenting.
