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Shaine Casas to Begin Training at the University of Texas This Week
Back in September, Shaine Casas revealed he was leaving Texas A&M after three years on the Aggies’ men’s swim team and heading north to train at the University of Texas as a professional swimmer. That move was delayed for a few months as Casas trained throughout the fall with the A&M program under coaches Jay Holmes and Jason Calanog, but he will finally be heading to Austin to train with legendary Texas men’s coach Eddie Reese. Casas will swim his first day with Texas on Thursday.
Casas posted a photo to his Instagram story confirming the news, with Holmes on his left and Calanog to his right, and he captioned the post, “Thank you.”
The move comes just weeks after Casas claimed gold in the men’s 100 backstroke at the Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi. Casas took down Olympic silver medalist Kliment Kolesnikov to win that title, and he later picked up a silver medal in the 200 back. He also won four relay medals at that meet. His Short Course Worlds performance was a strong rebound after Casas narrowly missed the U.S. Olympic team in the 100 back, finishing third.
During his time with the Aggies, Casas became one of the best swimmers in the country. He broke out during the summer after his freshman year by winning two U.S. national titles, and then he was the country’s premier swimmer throughout his sophomore and junior seasons. The 2020 NCAA Championships were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021, Casas was the NCAA Swimmer of the Meet as he won national titles in the 200 IM, 100 back and 200 back, narrowly missing Ryan Murphy’s American record in the 200 back. He propelled Texas A&M to a rare top-10 finish.
Casas will aim to qualify for his first U.S. international “A” team in April when the squad for the 2022 FINA World Championships is selected. Casas is expected to again be a favorite in the backstroke events, particularly the 100-meter distance.
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