ATLANTA, Ga. – The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team started its quest for a 10th straight top 10 national finish with a huge swim in the 800-yard freestyle relay on the first day of the 2016 NCAA Championships on Wednesday at Georgia Tech's McAuley Aquatic Center.
The Texas A&M foursome of junior Sarah Gibson, freshman Sydney Pickrem, sophomore Kristin Malone and freshman Claire Rasmus came within an eyelash of breaking the school record as they took fifth place in a time of 6:58.83, which lopped over two seconds off the previous season best. It was the second fastest 800 free relay in school history behind the 6:58.80 clocking by the team of Liliana Ibanez, Meredith Oliver, Kelli Benjamin and Sarah Henry at the 2014 SEC Championships.
"I think it's a great start for the meet," Gibson said. "It was a close race, it was a fast race and everyone was really stepping up. This is a great facility and it's easy to swim fast here. I'm excited to see what the rest of the week will bring. I know there will be a lot more fast races and we're going to have some amazing swims coming up, so it's exciting."
The Aggies were sparked by Gibson's leadoff leg of 1:43.41, which took down Julia Wilkinson's old 200 freestyle school record of 1:43.64 from the 2008 NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Gibson entered the day with lifetime best time of 1:45.49, but destroyed her previous best by nearly two full seconds.
"Being the first person in the water, I wanted to set a good tone for the meet," Gibson said. "Looking around me before the race and seeing everyone supporting me, I got so fired up and I wanted to do it for them and give them a swim that we could all be proud of."
The 800 free relay was the only race of day one of the NCAA Championships, so the Aggies stood fifth in the team standings with 28 points. Ahead of the Aggies in the relay and the team standings were Georgia (40 points), USC (34), California (32) and Virginia (30).
The Texas A&M foursome of junior Sarah Gibson, freshman Sydney Pickrem, sophomore Kristin Malone and freshman Claire Rasmus came within an eyelash of breaking the school record as they took fifth place in a time of 6:58.83, which lopped over two seconds off the previous season best. It was the second fastest 800 free relay in school history behind the 6:58.80 clocking by the team of Liliana Ibanez, Meredith Oliver, Kelli Benjamin and Sarah Henry at the 2014 SEC Championships.
"I think it's a great start for the meet," Gibson said. "It was a close race, it was a fast race and everyone was really stepping up. This is a great facility and it's easy to swim fast here. I'm excited to see what the rest of the week will bring. I know there will be a lot more fast races and we're going to have some amazing swims coming up, so it's exciting."
The Aggies were sparked by Gibson's leadoff leg of 1:43.41, which took down Julia Wilkinson's old 200 freestyle school record of 1:43.64 from the 2008 NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Gibson entered the day with lifetime best time of 1:45.49, but destroyed her previous best by nearly two full seconds.
"Being the first person in the water, I wanted to set a good tone for the meet," Gibson said. "Looking around me before the race and seeing everyone supporting me, I got so fired up and I wanted to do it for them and give them a swim that we could all be proud of."
The 800 free relay was the only race of day one of the NCAA Championships, so the Aggies stood fifth in the team standings with 28 points. Ahead of the Aggies in the relay and the team standings were Georgia (40 points), USC (34), California (32) and Virginia (30).