November 28, 2007
Texas A&M junior Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.) was named the female Big 12 Swimmer of the Week by the conference office on Wednesday.
Wilkinson earned the honor based on her performances at the Art Adamson Invitational held in College Station on Nov. 16-18. Wilkinson won four individual events, setting A&M school records in three of them. The two-time individual Big 12 champion swam NCAA automatic qualifying times in five of the six individual events she competed in while swimming a leg on all five winning relays.
Heading into this weekend, Wilkinson is the national leader in the 100 and 200-yard freestyles as well as the 200-yard individual medley, the same three events she set school records in a week-and-a-half ago.
The Big 12 honor is Wilkinson?â„¢s fourth of her career. She last earned the award following the inaugural Art Adamson Invitational a season ago. She has also been named the National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week in each of the last two seasons as well.
Wilkinson has now won the Big 12 Swimmer of the Week/Month award more times than any other female swimmer in A&M history. She previously shared the mark of three with Danielle Townsend, who won the award three straight times from 2004-05. She now also shares the all-time Big 12 mark with six-time Big 12 champion Colleen Lann?© who swam for Texas from 1999 to 2001.
Since the start of the 2003-04 season, the Aggies have won the award nearly three times as much any other school in the conference. A&M has been granted the honor 11 of the last 20 times it has been presented (Texas 4, Kansas 3, Nebraska 2).
A pair of Aggies will compete in the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming Short Course National Championships this weekend while most of the rest of the team will get a few races in at the Gulf Senior Championships in College Station the following weekend.