The Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team continued to extend its first place lead in record-breaking fashion on Friday night at the 2008 Big 12 Championships at the Texas Swimming Center.  
 
The Aggies extended their first-place lead over Texas to a 687-516 spread with one day remaining in the championships. Missouri leads Kansas by a scant 338.5-332.5 margin while Iowa State is successfully fighting off Nebraska for fifth place at the moment, 235-221.
 
From a performance standpoint, the Aggies are on a roll the likes the Big 12 meet has never seen before and are leaving the Big 12 meet and all-time conference record books in shambles. A&M broke two more all-time conference records in addition to a third meet record on Friday night. The Aggies also have yet to lose a single swimming event in the first three days of the Big 12 meet.
 
Junior all-everythings Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) and Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.) are leading the record-breaking charge, adding their second all-time Big 12 records each in as many days. Neither Aggie has yet to taste defeat, be it individually or in a relay, all week.
 
Aljand won the second Big 12 100-yard butterfly title of her career, and her fifth individual title in three years, with a meet record-destroying swim of 52.31. Aljand broke the meet record of 52.88 set by Texas’ Sarah Wanezek in 2003 as well as Wanezek’s all-time Big 12 record of 52.39. Aljand also anchored the winning Big 12 200-yard freestyle relay with a split of 21.96. Aljand teamed with Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), Wilkinson, Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.) to break the Big 12 meet record of 1:29.87 set by Texas 10 years ago. The Aggies hit the wall first in 1:29.74 to make themselves a perfect four-for-four in relays for the week.
 
Wilkinson was equally as impressive as Aljand, laying waste to the all-time Big 12 record in the 100-yard backstroke. After setting a new school record leading off the 400 medley relay on Thursday, Wilkinson broke every Big 12 record across the board in the event Friday with a time of 52.70. The old Big 12 meet and all-time record of 53.46 was set by Texas’ Wanezek in 53.46. Wilkinson also turned in a swift split of 22.08 on the Big 12 champion 200 free relay.
 
Wilkinson led a 1-2-3-4 A&M sweep in the final of the 100 backstroke. Sophomore Emily Neal (Plano) was second in a season-best time 55.22. Fellow sophomore Sarah Woods, who entered the meet with a lifetime best of 57.97 destroyed that by going 55.26 for the bronze medal. Freshman transfer Lindsey King (Beaverton, Ore.) was fourth in a lifetime-best swim of 55.37.
 
Defending Big 12 Swimmer of the Meet Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) broke the A&M school record in the 200-yard freestyle for the second and third times this week, eventually resting the mark at 1:45.48 in winning the fourth individual conference title of her career. Marshall led a 1-2-3 A&M finish in the event as Kristen Heiss (Casper, Wyo.) was second in a season-best and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:46.61. Junior Codie Hansen (Arlington) was third in 1:47.28 while fellow junior Marissa Jasek was seventh in 1:49.21. Senior Erin Mahoney (Wichita, Kan.) cranked out an impressive win in the non-scoring heat with a near-NCAA automatic qualifying and lifetime best time of 1:47.20.
 
Sophomore Melissa Hain (Kingwood) successfully defended her 400 individual medley title as the Aggies rolled to a 1-2-3-5 finish. Hain finished ina timeof 4:11.74, the second-fastest of her career. Emily Neal was second in a lifetime-best time of 4:13.61 while senior Jenni Stratton (Portland) was third in 4:13.78. All three Aggies earned NCAA automatic qualifying performances. Freshman Melanie Dodds (Maple Ridge, B.C.) was fifth in a career-best of 4:16.73 while fellow frosh Casey Hurrell-Zitelman (San Antonio) was seventh in 4:22.31, both NCAA consideration performances.
 
Sophomore Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) successfully defended her 100-yard breaststroke title from a year ago with an NCAA automatic qualifying and season-best effort of 1:00.68. Atkinson also finished third in the 100-yard fly despite not swimming the event at the Big 12 meet last season. Atkinson recorded a career-best time of 54.13 for the bronze medal.
 
Sophomore Ella Doerge (Clive, Iowa) had the best day of her swimming life on Friday despite not being on A&M’s scoring squad. Doerge annihilated her previous lifetime bests in both the 100 fly and 100 back, swimming so fast that she would have earned bronze and silver medals in the two events, respectively. Doerge entered the meet with a career best of 56.04 in the 100 fly, which was easily blown up after a ‘C’ final win in 54.11. Doerge was just as strong in the 100 back, lowering her lifetime best from 57.22 to 55.04 with a ‘C’ final win at the end of the night.
 
The fourth and final day of action at the Big 12 Championships will commence on Saturday at 10 a.m. with prelims while finals are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

Texas sophomore Dave Walters tallied a new Big 12 Conference meet record as the second-ranked Longhorns picked up six swimming victories and one diving win on day three of the 2008 Big 12 Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.
Texas leads the event with 768 points and Missouri sits in second place with 526 points.  Texas A&M is in third place with 507 points.
After breaking an 18-year-old school record in the 200 freestyle Wednesday evening while clocking 1:32.51 on the lead leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay, Walters nearly broke his own mark but wound up with a new Big 12 meet record instead, winning in 1:32.66.  The time surpassed teammate Matt McGinnis’ previous Big 12 meet record of 1:34.37 set at the 2007 Big 12 Championships in College Station, Texas.
UT took the top six spots in that event, as McGinnis took second in 1:33.17 and junior Ryan Verlatti took third in 1:35.48.  Junior Sean Patton took fourth in 1:37.27 and senior Jeremy Harris took fifth in 1:37.38.  Freshman Jonathan Jackson placed sixth in 1:38.02.
                Texas opened the day three finals with an NCAA automatic-qualifying swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay, as Jackson, Harris, freshman Brian Wilson and sophomore Ricky Berens touched in 1:18.28, beating the NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 1:18.47.
                Junior Michael Klueh captured the 400 IM in 3:46.09 for another NCAA “A” cut, and senior Agustin Magruder took second in 3:48.61.  Senior Caleb McDermott took third in 3:50.38, and freshman Bryan Collins took fourth in 3:50.78.
                Berens became the second-fastest Longhorn ever in the 100 butterfly earlier in the day with a preliminary-round time of 46.02.  He ended the night by taking the Big 12 crown in that event in 46.38.  UT landed the top five spots, as sophomore Hill Taylor took second in 46.92 for another NCAA automatic mark, and senior Chris Seitz placed third in 47.24.  Wilson took fourth in 48.03, and senior Dan Rohleder took fifth in 48.22.
                Senior Matt Lowe took the 100 breaststroke title in a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 53.26, and Rohleder claimed the 100 backstroke in 46.84, good for another NCAA “A” cut.  Taylor tallied his second NCAA “A” cut in 47.28.
                Freshman Matt Cooper scored his first conference title, winning the three-meter diving event with an impressive score of 420.40.  Junior Jonathan Wilcox took second at 388.80.
                The fourth and final day of the Big 12 Championships kicks off on Saturday at 10 a.m. Central at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.