February 22, 2007
This weekend?â„¢s Speedo Championship Series: Southern Sectionals swimming & diving meet at the Student Rec Center Natatorium will provide a final opportunity for some of the Texas A&M women to qualify for the 2007 NCAA Championships.
Several Aggies with NCAA consideration times will compete this weekend in hopes of improving their national standing prior to the NCAA Championships.
Senior co-captain Whitney Thomson (Allen) set a lifetime-best and NCAA consideration time of 2:01.69 during prelims of the 200-yard butterfly at the Big 12 Championships last week. Thomson also has a ?'B?â„¢ cut time of 4:22.38 in the 400 IM, an event she placed 10th at last week at the conference meet.
Junior Chelsea Helgason (Olympia, Wash.) brings an NCAA consideration time of 2:03.61 in the 200-yard individual medley into sectionals. Helgason finished 10th in the event at the Big 12 Championships.
Junior Megan Rains (Puyallup, Wash.) has an NCAA consideration time of 1:50.10 in the 200-yard freestyle. Rains is one of eight Aggies with NCAA consideration times in the 200 free.
Sophomore Marissa Jasek (San Antonio) was a Big 12 finalist in the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyles and owns NCAA consideration times in each race.
Sophomore Sally Ranzau (Alpharetta, Ga.) has posted NCAA ?'B?â„¢ cut times of 4:51.41 in the 500 freestyle and 16:49.61 in the 1,650 freestyle this season. Ranzau swam fast enough to finish in the top 10 in the 1,650 amongst a very talented field at the Big 12 Championships last week.
Freshman Kasia Dulian (Raciborz, Poland), who has only been with the Aggies less than two months, has NCAA consideration times in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes. Dulian will be looking to trim approximately less than two seconds off her season-best time of 2:16.99 in the 200 breast in order to likely qualify for the NCAA meet.
Freshman Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) swam fast enough to rank in the top 10 in the conference during prelims of both the 50 and 100-yard freestyles. Woods holds NCAA consideration times of 23.39 and 50.49 in those events respectively.
Junior Kylee Robinson (San Antonio) will also get the opportunity to compete over a full weekend after being felled by an illness on the first full day of the Big 12 Championships last week.
The sectional meet will begin this evening with the 1,000-yard freestyle and will showcase fall signee Casey Hurrell-Zitelman of San Antonio. Hurrell-Zitelman was the highest-placing senior at the 5A state meet last weekend in the 500-yard freestyle, taking fifth in 4:54.01. She was also the top finishing senior in the 200 free, taking sixth in 1:50.96.
The collegiate level swimmers will be competing around 7 p.m. this evening. The meet will run through Sunday with prelims scheduled for 9 a.m. every day. Finals will begin on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and at 5 p.m. on Sunday.