Texas Men Break American Record in First Day of Big XII's

The Texas A&M women’s swimming & diving team won both the 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle relays to jump out to the early lead at the 2008 Big 12 Championships at the Texas Swimming Center on Wednesday night.  On the men's side it was all Texas with the Longhorns sweeping the relays, the later in American Record time.  

The Texas men lopped nearly two seconds off the American record held by Club Wolverine.  Dave Walters led off with a Texas record 1:32.51.

Afterwards Walters explained. “This is such an extreme privilege.  I’m very humbled and very blessed that I had the privilege to swim on a relay like that.  Also, it was an honor to break Doug Gjertsen’s 200 freestyle record.  He sent me a text message and told me it was a nice swim.”

That was just the start though.  Walters gave way to Matt McGinnis's 1:33.31 while Michael Klueh continued the assault with a 1:32.21.

 

Said Texas coach Eddie Reese, “Everyone knew if we got a school record on the opening leg, that they would be in the ball game to break that record.  I was getting the splits (each 25-yard time) and I knew they were overswimming the first 100 (yards of each leg) a little bit.  But, their time at the three-quarter mark was so fast, even if they got tired and showed fatigue, they would still have a great split, and they all did that."

Indeed, when Ricky Berens left the blocks he could waltz home in a pedestrian 1:34.4 and still get the record.  Pedestrian it wasn't however as the Mecklenburg product finished in a 1:32.52 to finish in 6:10.55 - nearly two seconds under the American record, eight seconds better than their Big XII performance from a year ago, a lap ahead of second-place A&M and over fifteen seconds under the NCAA 'A' standard.

Said Berens, “It hasn’t really hit me yet, but it was really cool to be the one finishing and touching the wall and getting to react to the record and see the crowd.  I was hurting in the end, but I told myself not to screw it up because it would all turn out great in the end.”

Added Reese, "Was I surprised?  Without a doubt!  I figured we could go 6:12 or 6:16.  They did a phenomenal job.”

The Aggies women hold an 80-64 lead over Kansas, Missouri and Texas heading into day two. It also marked the first time that A&M has swept both races on the first night of the Big 12 Championships.

“Tonight was a great evening for us,” A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. “We got one school record, two near Big 12 records, won both events – just a super night for us. Winning the 200 medley for the first time ever was a great way to start the meet.”

A&M toyed with the all-time Big 12 record in both races, falling less than a tenth of a second short in each, but still cruised to sizable victories over Kansas and Missouri in the 200 medley and 800 free relays, respectively.

Defending Big 12 Swimmer of the Meet Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) got the Aggies off to a blistering start in the 800 freestyle relay, setting a new A&M school record of 1:45.74 on her leadoff leg. Her teammates, Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.), Beth McCullough (Austin), and Codie Hansen (Arlington) brought the team home in 7:05.98, the second-fastest time in Big 12 history.

The Aggies began the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay at a conference meet for the first time in school history. The group of Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.), Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), Triiin, Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), and Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) clocked the second-fastest time in school history at 1:38.76 to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.

“Watching what they did tonight just makes everyone excited to keep racing and see just how fast we can be for the rest of the meet,” Bultman said.

On the men's side, it was the host Longhorns sweeping both relays. Separated by just 0.01 after the backstroke, Alrejando Jacobo powered the A&M 200 Medley to a 0.30 lead at the half-way point.  Daniel Rohleder pulled ahead for the Longhorns and gave Jeremy Harris enough of a lead to hold off Ozzie Gardner's 18.97 anchor split. Texas 1:27.18, A&M 1:27.36 with Missouri third in 1:30.71. 

The first full day of competition at the Big 12 Championships will take place on Thursday with preliminaries scheduled for 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.