October 13, 2006
The Texas A&M women?â„¢s swimming & diving team is off to an incredible start at the halfway point of the Big 12 Relays.
The Aggies swept all seven swimming events during the morning session to jump out to a 51-34 lead in the team standings.
A&M ran away with the 400-yard freestyle relay, easily cruising past the NCAA consideration standard of 3:24.91. Sophomores Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.), Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.), and Codie Hansen (Arlington) teamed with freshman Melissa Hain (Kingwood) to earn a near-five second win over Texas after hitting the wall in 3:22.81. Marshall led off the relay in an NCAA consideration time of 50.69 for 100 yards as well.
In perhaps the most competitive race from top to bottom in the morning session, the Aggie 3 x 500-yard relay of Hansen, Jenni Stratton (Portland, Ore.) and Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.) all turned in sub-4:58 splits to earn the win over Missouri. A&M clocked a time of 14:52.75 as its balanced depth eventually wore down the rest of the field.
A&M?â„¢s ?'B?â„¢ 400 free relay of Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), Erin Mahoney (Wichita, Kan.), Beth McCullough (Austin), and Chelsea Helgason (Olympia Wash.) proved fast enough to rank third in the entire field after posting a time of 3:30.08.
A&M appeared to have been edged out in the 300-yard breaststroke relay despite an eye-opening 1:01.9 second leg from true freshman Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), however the Longhorns later were disqualified giving A&M the victory.
The Aggies closed the session by scraping out a victory in the 200-yard medley relay. The group of Heiss, Atkinson, Megan Rains (Puyallup, Wash.), and Rebecca Sturdy (Anacortes, Wash.) finished in a time of 1:43.03 to hold of the Longhorn group of Connie Brown, Elizabeth Tinnon, Hee-Jin Chang, and Alex Basso who clocked a time of 1:43.19.
Rains proved to be the star of A&M?â„¢s first relay, the 4 x 25-yard medley relay, by virtue of pulling the Aggies out of a mid-race tie with Longhorns on the butterfly leg. Marissa Jasek slammed the door shut on the last leg to give A&M the win in 46.99.
The All-American trio of Marshall, Sturdy and Aljand cranked out a win in the 3 x 100 butterfly relay in a time of 2:46.48. Marshall led off the relay in 55.68 to get the Aggies on their way to a near-five second win over the Longhorns.
The Aggies threw three more All-Americans out on the 3 x 100-yard backstroke relay (Heiss, Sturdy, Wilkinson) with much the same result as the 30 fly relay. The trio clocked a time of 2:46.62, with Heiss going 56.65 on the leadoff leg, to earn the win by more than a second.
Freshman diver Alex Tipple (Thunder Bay, Ont.) finished fifth in the ?'team?â„¢ three-meter diving event to contribute two points to the Aggie point total.
The second and final session is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the Devaney Center Natatorium.