Feb. 24, 2009
COLLEGE STATION - The back-to-back Big 12 champion Texas A&M women's swimming & diving team heads to Columbia, Mo., today to compete at the 2009 Big 12 Championships.
The Aggies ended the regular season with a 9-2 record as well as a pair of second place finishes at both the Big 12 Relays and the Art Adamson Invitational. Only three teams, No. 3 Texas, then-No. 6 California and current No. 6 Auburn are the only squads to hand A&M defeats this season.
A&M began its Big 12 championship reign in 2007 with a stirring 931-930 win over an eight-time defending champion Texas team that had only lost two conference titles in its history. The Aggies kicked it up a notch in 2008, topping the Longhorns in Austin, 967-948. A&M won 17 of the 18 races as it cruised to its second straight title.
This season, however, things will prove much more difficult in the team race for the Aggies. Misfortune and circumstance have dogged the Aggies much of the year and the week of the conference championship will unquestionably be the most difficult yet. A&M will be without the services of the last two Big 12 Swimmers of the Year, its four-time Big 12 breaststroke champion, and its two-time Big 12 Diver of the Week.
Seniors Kristen Heiss, a U.S. National Team member, and Julia Wilkinson, arguably the most versatile swimmer in Canadian history, both had shoulder surgery done early in the fall, forcing them to redshirt their true senior seasons. Newcomer diving phenomenon Alia Atkinson suffered the loss of her only brother in a plane crash in Central Florida less than a week ago. Atkinson will attend the memorial service for her brother in Florida on Thursday.
Setbacks aside, the Aggies return a very experienced, successful, and talented group of athletes with their sights set on lifetime best performances and the rare chance to finish off their season in their home pool at the NCAA Championships in College Station on March 19-21.
Leading the way for the Aggies will be arguably the most decorated swimmer in Texas A&M history, Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia). Aljand has earned 17 All-American titles and won six individual Big 12 titles in her first three years as an Aggie. Even with most of the major conference meets complete, Aljand ranks either first or second in the nation in her three primary individual events.
The Aggies will also trot out the first swimmer, male or female, in school history to ever make the United States Olympic swim team. Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.), a bronze medalist on the U.S. 800 freestyle relay, was the 2007 Big 12 Swimmer of the Meet in the Aggies' unforgettable 931-930 conference championship victory over the Longhorns in College Station.
Senior Codie Hansen (Arlington), one of the shining stars of the Aggies' amazing Class of 2009, will complete her Big 12 career where it started in Columbia, Mo. Hansen was the 2006 Big 12 Swimmer of the Meet and earned a share of Big 12 Swimmer of the Year honors that season as well. Hansen has been a stalwart performer on the Aggies' freestyle relays over the last four years, highlighted by A&M's second place 800 free relay at the NCAA Championships in 2008.
Senior Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), the second-fastest 50 freestyler in A&M history, will team with Aljand and some of their younger teammates to make the Aggies' freestyle relays a force to be reckoned with. Jasek was a Big 12 champion and All-American in the 200 freestyle relay in 2008.
Junior co-captain Melissa Hain (Kingwood), an NCAA finalist and school record holder in the 400 individual medley, will go for a third-straight Big 12 title in her signature event.
U.S. World University Games team member Emily Neal (Plano) has unleashed the fastest year of her career in 2008-09. Neal, a three-time Big 12 silver medalist in 2008, will be looking to break through and earn her first gold medal at the conference championships this season.
The Aggies also return Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Meet Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) to the Big 12 meet while also eagerly anticipating what's to come from a freshman class experiencing their first conference championship meet.
The Big 12 Championships will run from Feb. 25-28 at the Mizzou Aquatic Center on the University of Missouri campus. The women's meet will start with both the 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle relays on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Individual events will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday.