In their final Southeastern Conference dual meet of the season, the LSU swimming and diving teams fell to Texas A&M on both the men’s and women’s sides.

The No. 17 LSU men (4-2, 2-2 SEC) suffered their first defeat in three meets, falling 158-140, despite a promising start in the two opening events.

The Tigers started off with a bang in the 200 medley relay, paced by a time of 1:29.89 turned in by sophomore Michael Young, senior Andrei Tuomola, senior Raymond De Padua and junior Michael Saco. The strong opening effort was followed by senior Craig Hamilton recording his season-best time of 9:20.89 in the 1000 free.

The competition came down to the wire as the Aggies won four of the last six events to secure the win.

“To win meets you have to get there first in the second half of the meet as well,” said LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer. “We came up short.”

Geyer was pleased to see some impressive performances like the Tigers’ 1-2-3 finish in the 200 breast that saw junior Walter Loop record a career-best time of 2:01.24. This was Loop’s second career-best of the day as he came in second in the 100 breast with a time of 56.48.

On the women’s side, the Lady Tigers (6-2, 3-2 SEC) could keep up with the No. 5 Aggie women (6-1, 3-1 SEC), falling by a mark of 179-107.

The performance was highlighted by a season-best for LSU senior Audrey Lawson, who recorded a time of 2:00.34 in the 200 fly.

“When I talked to the women, I told them this is what SEC’s are going to be like,” Geyer said. “Just because we had some second and third place finishes doesn’t mean they were bad swims by any means. I think we raced well.”

The LSU women have one last meet before the conference championship next week as they play host to Houston, Rice and Tulane next Friday in the LSU Natatorium.