February 13, 2007
Texas A&M junior diver Eric Sehn will be chasing history at the 2007 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 14-17) at the TAMU Student Recreation Natatorium on the A&M campus.
Sehn (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) is unbeaten in two previous trips to the Big 12 Championships, sweeping the one- and three-meter springboards and the platform in 2005 and 2005. Sehn is the only diver in Big 12 history to notch consecutive ?triple crowns.?
With six individual gold medals to his credit, Sehn is just two behind former A&M diver Mark Naftanel, who is the most decorated athlete in Texas A&M history in terms of career individual conference championships. Naftanel won one Southwest Conference diving crown and seven Big 12 titles from 1996-99.
Naftanel?â„¢s seven Big 12 crowns makes him the winningest diver in Big 12 Conference history. A trio of Texas swimmers -- Nate Dusing, Ian Crocker and Brendan Hansen -- have logged a record eight individual titles at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships
Sehn is a perfect 15-0 against collegiate opposition in 2006-07 and was named the Big 12 Diver of the Week five of six possible times this school year.
Leading the way in the pool will be a solid core of swimmers with ?A? final experience from last year?â„¢s conference championship -- seniors Francisco Picasso and Nick Galen, junior Ryan Loney and sophomores Tim Sablick, Kyle Holland and Blaine Kisler. Also in the mix is 2005 Big 12 1,650-yard freestyle champion James Hard, who redshirted last season.
The Aggies?â„¢ swimmers will be boosted by a strong class of newcomers including transfers Ryan Latone and Shawn Clarke and freshmen Israel Duran, Jason Bergstrom, Casey Strange and Gregory Widmer. Duran was a two-time Big 12 Swimmer of the Week this season.