March 10, 2007
Senior Meghan Nebera (Brentwood, Tenn.) and sophomore Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.) broke school records during the final day of morning preliminaries at the 2007 NCAA Women?â„¢s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Meghan Nebera, who potentially could have been swimming the final race of her career, exploded over the final 75 yards of the 200-yard butterfly to break the Texas A&M school record. Nebera?â„¢s time of 1:58.53 eclipsed the A&M record mark of 1:58.71 set by Christine Marshall at the Big 12 Championships last month. Nebera, who broke the two-minute barrier for just the second time in her swimming career, earned second place in her heat and ranks 14th overall.
Kristen Heiss paced herself incredibly patiently through her 200-yard backstroke heat to not only break the A&M record but qualify second for tonight?â„¢s championship final. Heiss, who had only gone under 1:56 once in her life, lowered teammate Julia Wilkinson?â„¢s school record of 1:55.48 to 1:54.45. Heiss missed being the No. 1 qualifier in the entire field by just .03.
Freshman Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) recorded a time of 2:13.75 to qualify 13th in the 200-yard breaststroke. Atkinson will be making her second appearance in a consolation final in as many days.
A&M?â„¢s 400-yard freestyle relay of Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.), Codie Hansen (Arlington), Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), and Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) qualified for the consolation final with a time of 3:20.33. The relay qualified in 14th position.
Saturday?â„¢s finals will begin at 7 p.m. at the University Aquatic Center.