February 24, 2007
Texas A&M sophomore swimmer Marissa Jasek (San Antonio) won the gold medal in the women?â„¢s 200-yard freestyle at the Speedo Championship Series: Southern Sectionals on Saturday night at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
Jasek took top honors in an NCAA consideration time of 1:48.63 after going 1:49.49 during morning prelims. Junior Megan Rains (Puyallup, Wash.) was fifth in the race coming in at 1:50.78.
Rains was the Aggies?â„¢ top finisher in the 100-yard butterfly, taking the silver medal in a season-best time of 55.72. Senior Whitney Thomson (Allen) earned the bronze in that same race with a career-best swim of 55.75.
A&M signee Casey Hurrell-Zitelman (San Antonio) continued her strong meet with a third place finish in the 400-yard individual medley. Hurrell-Zitelman?â„¢s time of 4:20.10 falls more than three seconds below the NCAA consideration standard and would rank eighth on the all-time A&M list.
Freshman Kasia Dulian (Raciborz, Poland) finished fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke. Dulian?â„¢s time of 2:16.31 during prelims is a career-best and cuts more than half a second off her already-established NCAA consideration mark.
Junior Chelsea Helgason (Olympia, Wash.) set a lifetime-best of 2:19.58 in a third place finish in the consolation final of the 200 breast as well. Helgason also won the consolation final of the 200-yard freestyle in a career-best of 1:51.40.
The fourth and final day of Speedo Sectionals will begin with preliminaries at 9 a.m. Finals are slated to start at 5 p.m.