March 19, 2009
COLLEGE STATION - The Texas A&M women's swimming & diving team is in seventh place after the first of three days of action at the NCAA Championships being held at the Student Rec Center Natatorium this weekend.
The Aggies scored 71 points in breaking three school records on Thursday and are just four points shy of Big 12 rival Texas who sits in sixth. Defending national champion Arizona sits in first place, holding a small lead over Georgia, 141.5-133. California is third with 126 and Stanford is fourth with 105. Auburn is fifth with 91.5.
"It was a very good first day for us," A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. "I was pleased with the way we swam and competed. On paper, we weren't supposed to score in the 500 free and the 200 IM and we were able to score points in both. We broke three school records, including two relays, so we're off to a good start."
A&M scored a large chunk of their points in the first event of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay. The group of Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) and Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) set a school record twice on Thursday, going 1:28.25 in prelims then dropping to 1:28.14 in a sixth-place finish that earned the team 26 points. The group of four has recorded the five fastest times in A&M history together.
Senior Triin Aljand ended her 50-yard freestyle career at Texas A&M by lowering the school record in the event one last time. Aljand cracked the 21-second barrier legally for the first time ever, hitting the wall in 21.93 for a career-best fourth-place NCAA Championship finish. The 20-time All-American equaled the prior school record of 22.02 in preliminaries to swim the two fastest times in A&M history on the same day.
Sophomore diver Jaele Patrick (Lilydale, Victoria, Australia) earned a ninth-place finish in the first NCAA Championship event of her career. Patrick totaled a score of 281.30 during preliminaries, missing the final by just 1.4 points. Patrick's score ascended significantly in the consolation final, holding her ninth-place position after improving by more than 20 points to 304.85.
A&M's quartet of Triin Aljand, and Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) smashed the A&M record in the 400-yard medley relay. The group hit the wall in 3:31.86, clipping more than two full seconds off the prior mark. Their evening time was so fast that, had they advanced to the championship final, they would have placed fourth however the Aggies' time of 3:34.16 in prelims still ranks as the third-fastest time in school history.
Two Aggie seniors recorded the second and third-fastest 500-yard freestyle times in school history swimming in the same morning prelim heat. Christine Marshall went one-two in their heat, clocking times of 4:40.16 and 4:40.40, respectively, to qualify for the consolation final. Marshall claimed fifth at night in 4:42.19 while Hansen was eighth in 4:43.98.
Olympian Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) was the final qualifier for the consolation final of the 200-yard individual medley. Atkinson smashed her career best of 1:59.44 set less than three weeks ago in Missouri by going 1:57.31 during morning prelims. Atkinson clocked a time of 1:58.84 at night but moved up one spot from the morning rankings to claim 15th-place overall.
"It's exciting to have the meet here in our home pool," Bultman said. "It's such great exposure for our team, the athletic department, and the university. Obviously our team is trying to do things to get noticed, but hosting one of the fastest meets in the world in back-to-back weeks speaks volumes for our facilities and for our athletic departments which bids on these events."
Day two at the NCAA Championships begin with preliminaries at 11 a.m. Finals are scheduled for 7 p.m.