Feb. 25, 2009
Stats
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Texas A&M women's swimming & diving team turned in two inspired relay efforts on the first of four days of action at the 2009 Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday night.
A&M turned in the second-fastest time in school history and came in under the Big 12 meet record in a second place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The group of Codie Hansen (Arlington), Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.), Melissa Hain (Kingwood), and Marissa Jasek (San Antonio) all swam the fastest relay splits of their lives, hitting the wall as a group in 7:00.67.
Senior Codie Hansen led off the relay in 1:45.07, more than a second faster than her prior lifetime best effort of 1:46.09. The time ranks Hansen No. 14 in the nation in the race at the moment.
U.S. Olympian Christine Marshall gave the Aggies the lead on the second leg, splitting a time of 1:43.39. Marshall turned a 1.38 second deficit into a 1.48 advantage at the halfway point of the race after she swam the fastest 200 split of her life.
Junior co-captain Melissa Hain, swimming on the 800 free relay for the time ever at a championship meet for A&M, absolutely destroyed her prior lifetime best split of 1:49-plus, hitting the wall in 1:45.67 to keep the Aggies in the lead.
Senior All-American Marissa Jasek anchored A&M's relay against arguably the most talented swimmer in the country in Texas' Kathleen Hersey and held her own for much of the race. Jasek turned in the fastest split of her life, 1:46.54, and held off Hersey for 100 yards before the Longhorn phenom hit another gear, turning in the fastest 200 free split in Big 12 history (1:42.71).
The Aggies' second-place time ranks No. 2 in school history behind only the 6:59.50 that earned A&M a second place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2008. The time also ranks as the seventh-fastest in NCAA history.
A&M started the meet with a second place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The group of Renee Iserman (Spring), Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), and Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) swam the third-fastest time in school history at 1:38.34. Iserman, subbing for four-time Big 12 champion Alia Atkinson, turned in the breaststroke split of her life (27.48), pulling A&M from second to first at the midway point of the race.
"I'm very pleased with how the opening night went," A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. "We had some outstanding swims. Our 800 freestyle relay was more than five seconds faster than last year at this time. We definitely had some girls step up and take care of business."
In the team race, No. 3 Texas leads the two-time defending Big 12 champion Aggies, 80-68, two events into the 21-event competition. Kansas and Missouri are tied for third with 62 points.
Individual preliminaries will begin on Thursday at 10 a.m. with finals slated for 6 p.m.