February 13, 2007
The fifth-ranked Texas A&M women?â„¢s swimming & diving team will host the 2007 Big 12 Championships this Wednesday through Saturday at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
The A&M women have run roughshod over their season schedule that began in October. The Aggies opened the year with a dominating victory at the Big 12 Relays that saw them win all 16 races. They posted the first undefeated dual meet season in school history, compiling a 9-0 record that included defeats of in-state rivals SMU and Texas in the same year for the first time. A&M also won the inaugural Art Adamson Invitational over a multitude of nationally ranked programs, including Michigan and SMU, in November.
The Aggies?â„¢ most daunting task to this point lays directly in front of them: trying to win the school?â„¢s first conference championship in women?â„¢s swimming & diving. The University of Texas has won each of the last eight conference titles, including a 942.5-761 decision last season over A&M in Columbia, Mo. The Aggies have finished second at each of the last seven conference meets after never having finished that high in prior school history.
A&M returns both the Swimmer of the Meet and the Newcomer of the Meet from a year ago. Codie Hansen (Arlington) and Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), both sophomores this season, each won a pair of events and swam on multiple Big 12 champion relays a season ago. Hansen set A&M records in both the 200 and 500 freestyles at the meet while Aljand did likewise in the 50-yard freestyle.
One of the more highly anticipated match-ups will be between five-time Big 12 breaststroke champion Elizabeth Tinnon of Texas and Texas A&M freshman Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) in the 100-yard breaststroke. The pair ranks No. 2 and No. 3 nationally heading into the meet, with both swimmers?â„¢ season best times having been fast enough to win both the Big 10 and SEC meets held last weekend. The two have faced off once before this season with Atkinson taking first place in a Texas A&M school record time of 1:00.17 on Nov. 3.
In addition to Aljand and Hansen looking to defend two Big 12 titles each, A&M will look to defend all three of its conference titles in the freestyle relays. A&M swept all three freestyle relays for the first time ever at a conference meet last season, setting a Big 12 record in the 800 freestyle relay on the opening day with four freshmen. Sophomore Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.), a two-time conference athlete of the week and national swimmer of the week selection this season, will try to not only defend her Big 12 title in the 100-yard backstroke but earn two new titles as well.
The Big 12 Championships will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 6 p.m. with the 200-yard medley relay. Wednesday?â„¢s abbreviated schedule will conclude with A&M trying to defend its Big 12 title in the 800 freestyle relay several minutes later.
Individual events will begin on Thursday with preliminaries scheduled for 10 a.m. while finals are slated for 6 p.m. That schedule will hold for both Friday and Saturday as well.
Admission to the Big 12 Championships is $5 per session for adults and only $2 per session for students. All-session passes, which grant admission to each of the seven sessions, will be available for $20 for adults and $8 for students.
For more information on the 2007 Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships, please visit the women?â„¢s swimming & diving site on AggieAthletics.com