August 01, 2007
Texas A&M junior-to-be Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.) turned in arguably the most impressive performance ever produced by an Aggie women?â„¢s swimmer on Wednesday morning at the 2007 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships.
Heiss, swimming in the eighth of 13 preliminary heats of the 200-meter backstroke, recorded a time of 2:11.59. That time not only would have been fast enough to win this season?â„¢s NCAA Championships (after being converted to yards), but was faster than the winning time at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. The time also would have been good enough to easily qualify for the 2004 Olympic final in Athens and would have earned her a bronze medal at the 2005 world championships.
Heiss now ranks No. 14 in American history in the 200-meter backstroke and No. 18 in the world this year. She enters this evening?â„¢s final ranked second in the field behind only 2004 U.S. Olympian Katie Hoff, who turned professional before graduating high school.
The championship final of the women?â„¢s 200-meter backstroke will be contested at 7:22 EST.The race will be webcast live at usaswimming.sportnet.com.