February 16, 2007
The Texas A&M women?â„¢s swimming & diving team won every single swimming event for the second straight day to help keep the team lead following day three of four at the Big 12 Championships being held at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
The Aggies hold a slight 651-633 edge over eight-time defending Big 12 champion University of Texas. Kansas is in third with 293.5 points followed by Missouri (268), Iowa State (221) and Nebraska (217.5).
A&M led off the meet with its fifth consecutive Big 12 title in freestyle relays. The quartet of Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.), Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.), Rebecca Sturdy (Anacortes, Wash.) and Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) grabbed A&M?â„¢s second consecutive Big 12 200 free relay title after hitting the wall in a time of 1:30.08.
Sophomore Christine Marshall became the first Aggie to win two individual events at this year?â„¢s meet following a win in the 200-yard freestyle. Marshall finished in an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:46.41 to lead a 1-2-3 A&M finish. Junior Erin Mahoney (Wichita, Kan.) finished second in 1:47.20 while sophomore Codie Hansen (Arlington) was third in 1:47.71, both very low NCAA consideration times.
Freshman Melissa Hain (Kingwood) obliterated the both the A&M and Big 12 all-time record in the 400-yard individual medley with a career-best swim of 4:11.11. Hain led a 1-2 Aggie freshman sweep of the top two spots as fellow frosh Emily Neal (Plano) came in second in an NCAA consideration time of 4:16.63. The old big 12 record of 4:13.92 was set by Alisa Schuknecht of Texas in 2002.
Senior Rebecca Sturdy (Anacortes, Wash.) won her third career big 12 individual title with a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly. Sturdy, who was competing in the 100 fly at the Big 12 meet for the first time in her career, out-touched Texas?â„¢ Katie Robinson, 53.10 to 53.35. The time also set a new A&M school record. Defending champion Triin Aljand, who held the previous record at 53.24, took third in 53.54. All three times are NCAA automatic qualifying marks.
In one of the most anticipated races of the evening, freshman Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) unseated three-time defending Big 12 100-yard breaststroke champion in a thrilling race. Atkinson grabbed an early lead in the race with Tinnon closing the gap near the 25-yard mark. Neither could shake the other as they drew even with less then 20 yards to go. Atkinson managed one last tiny burst in the last few yards to hold off the three-time champ to earn her first career Big 12 individual title in an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:00.29. Tinnon was second in 1:00.44.
Sophomore Julia Wilkinson successfully defended her Big 12 championship in the 100-yard backstroke, holding off Texas star Connie Brown at the wall, 53.99 to 54.18. Both times were below the NCAA automatic qualifying standard.
Other Aggies making championship finals on Friday night were Jenni Stratton (Portland, Ore.), 400 IM, sixth, 4:18.54; Meghan Nebera (Brentwood, Tenn.), 100 fly, eighth, 56.35; Beth McCullough (Austin), 200 free, fifth, 1:48.71; Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), 200 free, seventh, 1:49.28; Kasia Dulian (Raciborz, Poland), 100 breast, sixth, 1:03.14; Chelsea Helgason (Olympia, Wash.), 100 breast, seventh, 1:04.56; Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.), 100 back, third, 54.71; Sturdy, 100 back, fourth, 54.83; and Neal, 100 back, fifth, 54.93.
The fourth and final day of the Big 12 Championships will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday with swimming preliminaries. The women?â„¢s platform preliminary will begin at 10:30 a.m. while the men?â„¢s will start at 12:30 p.m. The women?â„¢s platform final will start at 5 p.m. while the last finals session will start at 6 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students.