Feb. 22, 2011
The No. 18 Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team will compete in the 2011 Big 12 Championships Wednesday through Saturday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin.
The Aggies, who compiled a 5-1 dual meet record, head into the Big 12 Championships with a strong core of veterans from last year's squad that placed 12th at the NCAA Championships for the second straight year.
“It's time to be good,” Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. “We're looking forward to racing. We've been pointing to his meet all year long and working very hard to be ready for this particular moment. This meet will decide a lot of things, so we want to be at our very best.”
A&M took 13 competitors to last year's NCAA Championships, and eight of those standouts will be back in the pool for the Aggies this weekend. Among that group of standouts are seniors Nathan Lavery, Balazs Makany and Bryan Snowden, juniors Amini Fonua and Grant Nel and sophomores John Dalton, Omar Enriquez and John Wagner.
“The Big 12 Championships are circled on our calendar every year because it's our conference championship, but it's also a place where we want to get our qualifying times for NCAAs,” Holmes said. “We're racing Texas and Missouri, but we're also racing the rest of the country and want to get as many people as we can to the NCAA Championships.”
Nel is the defending Big 12 Champion in the three-meter springboard, and he shared the Diver of the Meet award with Texas's Drew Wilkinson at last year's conference meet. Nel has been impressive this season, breaking the school record in the 3m board with a score of 453.0.
Nel is joined by 2009 diving All-American Cam McLean, who missed last year's Big 12 and NCAA Championships due to a shoulder injury. McLean looks to be back to 100 percent after posting career-bests on both springboards in the Aggies' most recent competition and being named Big 12 Diver of the Week.
Also heading into the Big 12 meet on hot streaks are Fonua and Enriquez. Like McLean, Fonua earned his first Big 12 weekly honor after a strong performance in the regular season finale against the Longhorns. Fonua spurred the Aggies to a 200 medley relay win over Texas with a strong leadoff backstroke leg and then added an individual win in the 100 breaststroke in a NCAA “B” cut time of 54.35. Enriquez, already the owner of four individual school records, re-broke the A&M standard in the 1,650 freestyle and posted a win against Texas with a time of 15:06.23.
FACT SHEET
WHAT: 2011 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships.
WHERE: Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center – Austin, Texas
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 23 through Saturday, Feb. 26 (complete schedule below)
LIVE RESULTS
http://www.tsc.utexas.edu/results/big12/index.htm?DB_OEM_ID=10410
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS WEB SITE (includes live video links)
http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&KEY=&ATCLID=204989587
TICKETS (available at the door, priced per session)
Adults - $5
Students/Youth - $2
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
SWIMMING
Wednesday, Feb. 23 – 6 p.m. Central (finals)
200 medley relay
800 freestyle relay (following men's 1-meter diving finals)
Thursday, Feb. 24
10 a.m. Central (prelims)
500 freestyle
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
6 p.m. Central (finals)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle (following women's 1-meter diving finals)
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
Friday, Feb. 25
10 a.m. Central (prelims)
400 individual medley
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
6 p.m. Central (finals)
400 medley relay
400 individual medley (following men's 3-meter diving finals)
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
Saturday, Feb. 26
10 a.m. Central (prelims)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
6 p.m. Central (finals)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
1,650 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
400 freestyle relay (following men's platform diving finals)
DIVING
Wednesday, Feb. 23
4:30 p.m. – men's 1-meter prelims
6 p.m. – men's 1-meter finals (following 200 medley relay)
Thursday, Feb. 24
1 p.m. – women's 3-meter prelims
6 p.m. – women's 3-meter finals (following 200 freestyle relay)
Friday, Feb. 25
10:30 a.m. – men's 3-meter prelims
1:30 p.m. – women's 1-meter prelims
5 p.m. – men's 3-meter finals
6 p.m. – women's 1-meter finals (following 400 medley relay)
Saturday, Feb. 26
12:15 p.m. – women's platform prelims
2:45 p.m. – men's platform prelims
5 p.m. – women's platform finals
7:45 p.m. (approximately) – men's platform finals