March 18, 2010
A trio of Texas A&M's individual Big 12 Champions boosted the Aggie women's swimming and diving team toward its fourth straight top 10 finish after the first day of action at the 2010 NCAA Championships on Thursday.
           The Aggies scored 106 points and stand in a tie for fifth place with Arizona. Rounding out the top five in the team standing were Stanford (142.5), Georgia (134), California (122) and Florida (107). Texas A&M had competitors in five of six Championship finals, including both relays.
           "It was definitely a solid first day," A&M head swimming coach Steve Bultman said. "Having five individuals or relays in the top eight on the first day is really a great accomplishment and that sets us up very well for the rest of the meet. The girls are very excited and ready for day two."
           Leading the way on the first day for the Aggies were senior Julia Wilkinson, senior Kristen Heiss and junior Jaele Patrick, who all won multiple Big 12 individual titles at the conference meet three weeks ago and picked up where they left off at the NCAA Championships.
           Wilkinson nabbed the second NCAA runner-up finish of her career with a second place finish in the 200-yard IM. Wilkinson was edged out by American record holder Julia Smit of Stanford while breaking her own school record in a time of 1:54.45 (previous A&M record of 1:55.45 by Wilkinson in 2008).
           "Julia was awesome. She had a great day," Bultman said. "She had six swims so it was a long day for her, but she stepped up big time."
           Heiss followed Wilkinson with a strong performance in the 500 freestyle. Heiss, the Big 12 record holder in the race, flirted with her own school record before finishing sixth in 4:38.97.
           "It always great to be in the top eight, especially when it took a 4:40 to be in the Championship final," Bultman said. "But Kristen and I both felt like she could have done better, and we're going to get situated and get ready to go fast tomorrow."
           In what amounted to a rematch of last week's Zone D Diving regional, Patrick placed third with a score of 340.60 in the one-meter springboard behind Anastasia Pozdniakova of Houston (356.20) and Kelci Bryant of Minnesota (352.65).
           "Jaele did a great job and dove extremely well," Bultman said. "Jaele was ninth in this event last year and she improved to third this year, so it's a great accomplishment for her."
           The Aggies shined in both relays with the 200 free relay and the 400 medley relay tallying fourth-place finishes. Both finishes were program bests for the Aggies, in terms of highest finish. The 200 free foursome of junior Sarah Woods, Wilkinson and senior Alia Atkinson touched in a 1:29.02, while the 400 medley relay of freshman Tess Simpson, Atkinson, freshman Kendra Chernoff and Wilkinson finished in 3:33.06.
           In preliminary action, freshman Melissa Hain (22nd, 1:58.95), junior Emily Neal (51st, 2:01.43), and sophomore Rita Medrano (57th, 2:02.20). In the 50 free, Sommer narrowly missed the consolation final with a 17th place finish in 22.50 and Woods placed 30th in 22.75. In the one-meter springboard, sophomore Janie Potvin was 27th with a score of 257.45.
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