Two Events, Two School Records on Day One of Big 12 Championships for Aggie Women
Feb 14, 2007 | Women's Swimming and Diving
February 14, 2007
The Texas A&M women?™s swimming & diving team sits in a tie for first place following the first day of action at the Big 12 Championships being held at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
Despite there only being two events contested on the first day, the Aggies managed to break the school record and turn in NCAA automatic qualifying times in both of them.
The Aggie 800-yard freestyle relay of Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.), Erin Mahoney (Wichita, Kan.), Codie Hansen (Arlington) and Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) mauled the all-time Big 12 record of 7:09.52 that A&M set a year ago in Columbia, Mo. The Aggies clocked a time of 7:05.89 which ranks No. 3 nationally behind Auburn (7:04.12) and Georgia (7:05.13). Texas finished second in a school record time of 7:10.09, the fourth fastest time in Big 12 history.
The Aggies began the meet by clipping more than a full second off the Texas A&M school record in the 200-yard medley relay. The group of Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), Rebecca Sturdy (Anacortes, Wash.) and Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.) swam the fourth fastest time in the country at 1:38.68 to finish second. The group took down the old A&M record of 1:39.81 set at the conference meet two years ago by Courtney Patterson, Erin Briskie, Megan Rains and Danielle Townsend.
The University of Texas won the 200-yard medley relay, breaking the Big 12 meet record of 1:38.38 set in 2001 by Kelly Robins, Shona Kitson, Helen Denman and Colleen Lanne after hitting the wall in 1:38.36.
Following the first day, the Aggies and Longhorns are all square at 74 points apiece. Missouri is ahead of Kansas for third, 62-60, followed by Nebraska (56) and Iowa State (54).
Day two of the Big 12 Championships will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday with the men?™s one-meter diving preliminaries. Swimming preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. The men?™s one-meter final will begin at 5 p.m. while the rest of the schedule will commence at 6 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. All-session passes are available for $20 for adults and $8 for students.
