While all eyes were on the DMN Classic, it wasn't the only meet happening at Perkins. The fifth-ranked Texas A&M women’s extended its perfect season with its first dual meet win over No. 7 Southern Methodist in 21 years, winning 11 of 16 events and setting new pool records in both relays en route to their seventh-straight dual meet win of the season. Six different swimmers won individual races against the Mustangs with three underclassmen winning two races each.
"SMU has been one of the top women’s programs in the country for many, many years,” A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. "To beat them is something special. It’s the first time in my eight years here to beat them and the first time for our women’s team to do so since 1986. We’re having a great year and what we did today just continues it. It has been nice to beat powerhouses like Texas and SMU in the same year. We look to keep things rolling and see just how far we can go.”
The 178.5 to 115.5 A&M victory began by erasing a nine-year old natatorium record in the 200-yard medley relay. Sophomore Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), freshman Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), senior Rebecca Sturdy (Anacortes, Wash.) and sophomore Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) hit the wall in a time of 1:42.37 to clip more than a full second off the old mark of 1:43.71 set by SMU in 1998.
The Aggies closed the meet with a new pool record in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The group of sophomore Codie Hansen (Arlington), Aljand, Marshall, and Sturdy finished in 3:22.56, A&M’s second fastest of the season. The old mark of 3:23.18 was set by SMU in 1999.
SMU's Anja Carman and the Aggies Jenni Straton swam an even race in parallel lanes in the 1000 free but Carman maintained a solid pace and was able to surge at the end, grabbing first-place to stop the clock at 9:59.17, just out touching Straton who clocked in at 9:59.67. Katie Roberts swam a time of 10:06.23 for third-place and Federica Felloni placed sixth with a time of 10:34.19.
Klosova won the 100 free with a time of 50.25 whlie Blackman gave the Ponies another win in the 500 free with a time of 4:52.90.
Sophomores Triin Aljand and Julia Wilkinson and freshman Alia Atkinson all earned a pair of individual wins against SMU. Aljand recorded NCAA consideration times of 23.17 and 55.16 in taking wins in the 50 free and 100 fly. Wilkinson won both the 100 back (55.52; NCAA consideration time) and the 200 IM (2:04.47) while recording a third-place NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 50.59 in the 100 freestyle. Atkinson swept both breaststrokes, recording NCAA consideration times of 1:02.59 and 2:17.50 at the 100 and 200-yard distances, respectively.
Big 12 Swimmer of the Year Codie Hansen captured the 200-yard freestyle in an NCAA consideration time of 1:49.58. Hansen nearly erased a body-length deficit in the 500 freestyle in the final 50 yards, hitting the wall in 4:53.31, also an NCAA provisional qualifying time, for second place.
Sophomore All-American Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.) turned in one of the top 200 backstrokes of her career by taking first place honors in 1:58.96. Heiss’ time fell just over a second shy of the NCAA automatic qualifying standard.
Sophomore All-American Christine Marshall jumped out to a big lead early in the 200-yard butterfly and eventually took the top spot in an NCAA consideration time of 2:01.00.
Freshman diver Alex Tipple (Thunder Bay, Ont.) turned in a pair of runner-up finishes on both the one and three-meter springboards to help push the Aggies to their first dual meet victory over SMU since President Reagan was in office.
Texas A&M will travel to Denton on Sunday to face North Texas in a dual meet scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Student Rec Center.
