Jan. 22, 2009
COLLEGE STATION - The eighth-ranked Texas A&M women's swimming & diving team will host third-ranked Texas in a high-powered State Farm Lone Star Showdown on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Student Rec Center Natatorium.
Friday's meet will mark the first time ever that both A&M (7-0) and Texas (5-1) will face each other with both teams residing in the top 10. The Aggies have rolled up a 25-1 dual meet record over the last three seasons while the Longhorns' only loss this season has been a tight battle on the road against No. 1 Georgia two weeks ago.
The two teams boast a combined seven Olympians with six scheduled to compete Friday. A&M and Texas have also combined to win each of the last 10 Big 12 Championships in the sport.
Only six members of the women's United States Olympic Team currently compete collegiately and two of them will be on hand for the Lone Star Showdown. A&M senior Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) earned a bronze medal for her part on the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay becoming the first A&M swimmer to not only make the U.S. Olympic Team but the first Aggie female swimmer to medal. Texas freshman Kathleen Hersey qualified for the Olympics in the 200-meter butterfly, netting a finals berth in Beijing.
Aggie senior Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) and junior Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) both competed in their second Olympic Games last summer for Estonia and Jamaica, respectively. Texas senior Hee-Jin Chang and junior Susana Escobar represented South Korea and Mexico in Beijing, respectively. In addition, Aggie senior Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont., Canada), who appeared in three 2008 Olympic championship finals, is redshirting this season due to injury as is U.S. National Team member and 2007 Big 12 Swimmer of the Year Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.).
Both teams' head coaches put in time in Beijing as well. A&M head coach Steve Bultman was an assistant coach for Estonia while Texas coach Kim Brackin was the head coach for Zimbabwe.
The competition will be equally as intense in the diving well as Texas brings in 2007 NCAA platform champion Jessica Livingston and former Big 12 Diver of the Year Kathryn Kelly, among others, to face the Aggies' newest member Haley Haynes (The Woodlands), and the rest of the A&M diving squad.
The Longhorns dominate the all-time dual meet series, 23-4, however A&M enters the meet on a two-meet win streak over Texas. A&M won the last dual meet between the two, a 174-124 win over the then-No. 17 Longhorns in Austin on Feb. 2, 2008. The two teams have met once this season with Texas walking away with a tight 102-98 decision at the six-team Big 12 Relays in Lawrence, Kan. on Oct. 24.
A pair of tickets to the 2009 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, to be held in College Station on March 19-21, will be given away at Friday's meet.
Texas holds a 3.5 to 1.5 advantage in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown series. Texas A&M is the defending champion in the annual contest between the state's two top athletic programs.
Friday's meet will be web streamed live and free of charge on AggieAthletics.
Admission to Texas A&M swimming & diving events is free of charge. The 12th Man Team Rewards Program will be in attendance to stamp/scan members.