Nov. 26, 2008
COLLEGE STATION - Texas A&M women's swimmer Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) has been named both the Big 12 and Counsilman Hunsaker National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week, both groups announced on Wednesday.
Aljand turned in one of the most impressive overall meets by a woman in NCAA history last weekend in her home pool at the Art Adamson Invitational. Aljand swam times that did, or would have, cracked the top 5 all-time in NCAA history in three different individual races.
On Friday, Aljand swam what was thought to be a new NCAA all-time record in the 50-yard freestyle at 21.61, however a measurement following the session revealed the pool to be 1 and 1/8 inches short of the necessary length. Also in that session, Aljand turned in incredibly fast relay splits of 21.75 in the 50 free and 50.88 in the 100 fly.
On Saturday, with the pool length issue corrected, Aljand became the fourth-fastest collegiate performer ever in the women's 100-yard butterfly. She won in an A&M record time of 51.32. Only U.S. Olympic gold medalists Natalie Coughlin and Dana Vollmer and U.S. silver medalist Christine Magnusson have ever swam the 100 fly faster than Aljand as a collegian. She also turned in a relay split of 22.94 in the 50-yard butterfly, a time faster than most of the collegiate 50-yard freestylers in the country.
On Sunday, Aljand etched her name in the 100-yard freestyle record books, swimming a time so fast that it would have won last season's NCAA title. Aljand recorded an A&M record time of 47.35, becoming the fifth-fastest woman ever in the history of the event. Only multi-time NCAA champions Natalie Coughlin, Kara Lynn Joyce, Maritza Correia, and Lacey Nymeyer - all now post-collegians -- have been faster than Aljand. Aljand also swam an anchor leg of 47.13 on the 400-yard freestyle relay to put an exclamation point on one of the most impressive weekends in NCAA women's swimming history.
Aljand becomes the second Aggie to be named National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week this season. Fellow senior and U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) earned the honor three weeks ago after command performances in the 200 and 500-yard freestyles against Penn State on Halloween night.
Aljand becomes the first Aggie to earn Big 12 Swimmer of the Week this season. The Big 12 honor is the third of her career. The six-time individual Big 12 champion previously won the conference award in October of 2005 and October of 2007.