UT Men Maintain Lead; A&M Women Jump Ahead at Big 12 Championships

Competition on day three at the 2009 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships did not disappoint as league swimmers and divers went all out at the Mizzou Aquatics Center. Through seven events, six meet and four overall conference records were rewritten.

The Longhorn men tallied 368 points on the day to extend their lead (765), followed by the Texas A&M (534.50) and Missouri (525.50). UT swept all six swimming races, as the 200-yard freestyle relay of Jimmy Feigen, Jonathan Jackson, Benjamin Van Roekel and David Walters (1:16.89) and Bryan Collins’ performance in the 400-yard individual medley (3:44.27) both set meet and overall league records.
Junior Hill Taylor led individually among the men’s field by notching two gold medals in the 100-yard butterfly (45.57) and 100-yard backstroke (45.65). His time in the backstroke beat out the 12-year-old championship record held by former Texas All-American Neil Walker (46.25, 1997).

The Texas A&M women (582) moved into first place after splitting the swimming events with Texas (580). Missouri tabbed 186 points on the day to hold onto third, followed by Kansas (333), Iowa State (225) and Nebraska (194).

The Aggie women made it onto the podium first after the 200-yard freestyle relay of Maria Sommer, Marissa Jack, Sarah Woods and Triin Aljand set a new meet and conference time (1:28.58), both previously set by A&M a year ago. Freshman Kathleen Hersey (Texas) now owns both all records in the 400-yard individual medley as her time of 4:07.76 set a new meet mark.

A&M senior Eric Sehn dove to his 11th-career Big 12 individual title in the three-meter springboard, setting both the championship and league record with 451.35 points on six dives. On the women’s side, UT senior Jessica Livingston took her first three-meter diving title, third overall, after scoring 362 points.

The schedule for the final day begins with prelims at 10 a.m., followed by the women’s platform finals at 5 p.m., and swimming events beginning at 6 p.m. Team and individual trophy presentations will begin immediately following the conclusion of the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Men- 1. Texas (1,114); 2. Missouri (810.5); 3. Texas A&M (797.5)
Women-  1. Texas (893); 2. Texas A&M (831); 3. Missouri (582); 4. Kansas (493); 5. Iowa State (332); 6. Nebraska (298)

No. 3 Texas adds six victories, two school records at Big 12 Championships
No. 3 Texas notched six victories and two school records to seize control of the meet Friday evening on day three of the 2009 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships at the Mizzou Aquatics Center.
               
Heading into the final day of competition, Texas sits in first with 765 points, while Texas A&M holds second with 534.5 points.  Host Missouri is in third with 525.5 points.  The Longhorns will look to capture their 30th consecutive conference championship on Saturday, all under the helm of head coach Eddie Reese, now in his 31st season at Texas.
               
UT opened the day-three finals with a pair of top-five finishes in the three-meter diving event.  Senior Jonathan Wilcox took second with 433.15 points, and sophomore Matt Cooper placed third with 409.90 points. 

Texas opened the swimming finals session with a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  Freshman Jimmy Feigen led off in 19.18 to become the third-fastest Longhorn in the 50 freestyle.  Sophomore Jonathan Jackson picked up the second leg in 19.57, and junior Ben Van Roekel split 19.31 on the third leg.  Junior Dave Walters anchored in 18.83 to produce a new school record of 1:16.89.  That broke the previous school standard of 1:16.94 set by Tyler O’Halloran, Matt Lowe, Jeremy Harris and Garrett Weber-Gale at the 2007 NCAA Championships.
               
Sophomore Bryan Collins lowered his school and conference records in the 400 IM while winning the event in 3:44.27.  The time broke his previous school record of 3:45.06 set at the Texas Invitational in December.  Freshman Hayes Johnson lowered his personal best in the event and took second in 3:46.31. 
               
Junior Hill Taylor scored his first of two victories on the night in the 100 butterfly, where he was victorious in a personal best and NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 45.57.  Junior Ricky Berens, the two-time conference champion in the event, took second in 46.31, and sophomore Brian Wilson placed third in 46.63.  Sophomore Matt Donch took fourth in 46.70.  Jackson took the “B” final in 48.56. 
               
Walters, the American record holder in the 200 freestyle, captured his second -consecutive Big 12 title in the event in 1:33.01 after being on pace to beat his American record after the first 100 yards.  In the event the featured seven Longhorns in the final, senior Ryan Verlatti took second at 1:35.31, and senior Michael Klueh placed third at 1:35.44.  Freshman Jackson Wilcox placed fourth at 1:36.36, and Feigen placed fifth at 1:36.44.  Senior Sean Patton took sixth at 1:36.54, and Van Roekel placed seventh in 1:36.59.
               
Senior Agustin Magruder scored his second career conference title and his first in the 100 breaststroke.  Magruder was victorious in 53.29, and freshman Eric Friedland took second in 53.90.  Notably, freshman Matt Hoyland clocked an exhibition time of 53.70.  Taylor added his second victory of the night in the 100 backstroke, where he jumped Aaron Peirsol to become the second-fastest Longhorn in the event in 45.65.  Taylor now only trails Neil Walker in the UT record book.  Continuing a superb meet, sophomore Scott Jostes added a NCAA “A” cut by taking second in 46.35. 
               
Making Miracles Happen: Aggies Grab Lead at Big 12 Championships
On paper, heading into the 2009 Big 12 Championships this weekend, the Texas A&M women’s swimming & diving team’s chances of winning a third-straight conference title were, for all practical purposes, impossible. On Friday, the Aggies balled up that proverbial paper and lit it on fire.
 
The eighth-ranked Aggies, competing without four of their top athletes, are one day away from pulling off an incomprehensible upset of a No. 3 Texas team whose only two losses this season are to No. 1 Georgia and defending national champion Arizona. A&M holds a 582-580 lead over the Longhorns with only one day remaining. Host Missouri is third with 395, followed by Kansas (333), Iowa State (225), and Nebraska (194).
 
“Today was just an outstanding day,” A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. “From top to bottom, we’re swimming really well. The girls just keep stepping up and finding a way to keep us in the meet.”
 
A&M came out firing on all cylinders right out of the gate by winning its first relay event of the championship and torched a school record in the process. The group of Maria Sommer (Brenham), Marissa Jasek (San Antonio), Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.), and Triin Aljand crushed the time those same four girls set at the NCAA Championships last March (1:29.40) by touching first in 1:28.58. Aljand cranked out the fastest 50 split of the field (21.63) to give the Aggies their first lead on the final leg of the race to beat Texas.
 
Aljand wasn’t done there however, as she rebounded from her first-ever Big 12 loss in the 50 free on Thursday to successfully defend her Big 12 100-yard butterfly title in 52.47. Aljand led a point boon for A&M in the 100 fly as junior Ella Doerge (Clive, Iowa), and freshmen Lauren Clifford (Pollock Pines, Calif.) and Rita Medrano (Aguascalientes, Mexico) finished 3-4-5 in times of 53.92, 54.30, and 54.31. Aljand’s individual title is the seventh of her career, ranking her No. 1 in A&M history.
 
Sophomore Lindsey King (Beaverton, Ore.) continued her monster meet with likely the highlight of her career to-date. King glided her way to the Big 12 title in the 100-yard backstroke in 53.26, the third-fastest time in A&M history, despite being ranked 10th in the conference in the race entering the weekend with a previous lifetime-best of 55.37. Ella Doerge finished fourth in 54.24, a time ranking her No. 4 in the A&M record books, while freshman Megan Latone (Austin) was fifth with a lifetime-best of 54.59.
 
The Aggies also hit a point boon in the 400-yard individual medley, scoring 59 points in the first individual race of the evening. Junior co-captain Melissa Hain (Kingwood) led the way, taking second in 4:12.84, followed directly by sophomore Melanie Dodds (Maple Ridge, B.C.) who hit the wall in a career-best of 4:13.54. Junior Emily Neal (Plano) was fifth in 4:13.71, just one-tenth shy of her career best, while sophomore Casey Hurrell-Zitelman (San Antonio) scored her second career best of the day in the 400 IM at night, placing seventh in 4:15.82.
 
Eight-time All-American Codie Hansen (Arlington) set a lifetime-best in the 200-yard freestyle for the second time in three days in taking runner-up honors. Hansen led a 2-3 A&M finish as U.S. Olympian Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.) came in right behind her in 1:45.35.
 
Freshman Lorena Lujan (San Antonio) picked the right time for her performance of the year, grabbing a finals berth and a zone qualifying opportunity during prelims by posting a score of 291.85. Lujan qualified sixth and held that spot at night, scoring a total of 280.15. Sophomore Emily Watson (Frisco) scored in her second and final event of the meet, taking 11th in 267.65.
 
Junior Renee Iserman (Spring) earned a seventh-place finish in her first-ever Big 12 final. Iserman set lifetime-bests in the 100-yard breaststroke twice on Friday, clocking a 1:03.17 in prelims before improving to 1:02.91 at night.
 
The Aggies will begin the final day of competition with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Finals are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
 
No. 3 Texas adds four victories on day three of Big 12 Championships
No. 3 Texas captured four events on day three but saw its 26-point lead in the team standings vanish Friday evening at the 2009 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships at the Mizzou Aquatics Center.    
               
With one day of competition remaining, Texas A&M now sits in first with 582 points, while Texas sits in a close second with 580 points.  Missouri holds third with 395 points, and Kansas sits in fourth with 33 points.  Iowa State is in fifth with 225 points, and Nebraska is in sixth with 194 points. 
               
The Longhorns opened the evening by taking second with a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  Freshman Karlee Bispo opened in 22.20 before giving way to Hee-Jin Chang, who split 21.90 on the second leg.  Freshman Katie Riefenstahl followed in 22.53, and sophomore Brie Powers anchored in 22.30, as the relay produced a new school standard of 1:28.93.  That mark beat the previous school record of 1:28.98 set by Colleen Lanne, Tanica Jamison, Kelley Robins and Erin Phenix at the 2001 NCAA Championships.  Texas A&M claimed the event in 1:28.58. 

Freshman Kathleen Hersey remained unbeaten this season in the 400 IM, where the conference record holder produced a winning time of 4:07.76.  Sophomore Ashleigh McCleery took eighth in 4:19.07.  Freshman Leah Gingrich won the consolation final in 4:13.80, and junior Alexi Spann took fourth in the “B” final in 4:19.78. 

Chang led the Texas contingent in the 100 butterfly by taking second in 53.58.  Senior Jacqueline Martin-Lacey placed seventh in 54.47.  Sophomore Brie Powers took fifth in the “B” final in 55.46.  Bispo scored her first conference title in the 200 freestyle, where she was victorious in 1:44.21.  Riefenstahl placed sixth in 1:47.35, and junior Susana Escobar placed seventh in 1:47.36.  Junior Traci Van Matre took eighth in 1:47.38, and sophomore Adrienne Woods placed sixth in the “B” final in 1:49.48.  Sophomore Natalie Sacco placed seventh in the “B” final in 1:49.79. 

Sophomore Carlye Ellis scored her first career conference title in the 100 breaststroke, where she was victorious in a personal best of 1:00.74.  Junior Alexi Spann placed fourth in 1:01.91.  Riefenstahl added a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke in 53.50.  Senior Rebecca Orr took second in the “B” final in 55.37. 

Senior Jessica Livingston scored her first Big 12 conference title in a springboard event when she capped the evening with 362.00 points in the three-meter event.  Freshman Shelby Cullinan added 16 points for the Longhorns by taking third with 318.60 points. 

The fourth and final day of competition at the Big 12 Championships begins Saturday at 10 a.m. Central. 
 
A&M’s Sehn Wins Again, Grabs 11th Gold Medal      
Texas A&M senior Eric Sehn won the 11th conference individual crown of his career with a record-setting effort in the three-meter springboard at the 2009 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at the University of Missouri Aquatic Center.

In the team race, defending champion Texas maintained its lead with 765 points, with the Aggies in second with 534.5 points and Missouri in third with 525.5.
          
Three divers scored over 400 points in the hotly-contested competition, but Sehn’s Big 12 meet and overall record 451.35 outclassed the field. Sehn held a narrow nine-point lead over Texas’ Jonathan Wilcox after four rounds, but shut the door on his competition with scores of 75.95 and 76.5 on his fifth and sixth dives.
           
“The three-meter is probably my strongest dive, so I was more confident than I was with the one-meter (on Wednesday),” Sehn said. “I was focused on making sure I landed on my head every time and being tight on my entries. Jonathan (Wilcox) dove extremely well, and he has a big list, so that helped keep me zoned in on my dives.”
           
Sehn, from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is now a perfect 11-for-11 at the Big 12 Championships, with the platform dive on tap on Saturday. Sehn’s 11th crown matches Texas Tech’s Sally Kipyego for most Big 12 titles by an individual. Kipyego will try to add to her total at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station this weekend.
           
“Eric did a great job of rising to the occasion,” Aggie diving coach Kevin Wright said. “Jonathan Wilcox has a tough list of dives and is capable scoring big. Eric had to step it up to win No. 11.
           
In swimming action, the Aggies sped to an NCAA “B” cut and second place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The foursome of sophomore Balazs Makany, senior Brad Raiford, junior Casey Strange and junior Jason Bergstrom hit the wall in a season-best 1:18.86.
           
Senior Ryan Loney placed third in the 400 IM with a lifetime-best time of 3:55.96, which is the eighth-fastest in school history.
           
Also earning a third-place finish was junior Nathan Lavery, who hit the wall in 54.25 in the 100-yard breaststroke. Earlier in the day, Lavery set the pool record (broken in the final) with a 53.64 “B” cut in the prelims. Lavery’s prelim clocking ranks as the second-fastest in school history. Also in the Championship final, sophomore Bryan Snowden placed fifth in a career-best 54.51 and freshman Amini Fonua took sixth in a career-best 54.54. Both Snowden and Fonua’s time were NCAA “B” cuts.
           
In the 100 back, the Aggies finished 3-4 with Bergstrom taking third in 47.33 and junior Nikita Denisyako placing fourth in 47.35.
           
In the 100 butterfly, sophomore Boris Loncaric placed fifth in the NCAA “B” cut and career-best time of 47.26, which is the second-fastest time in school history behind 1985 and 1986 NCAA 100 fly runner-up Chris O’Neil’s record of 47.10. Also in the Championship final, junior Tyler Welch placed seventh in 48.22 after posting a career-best 47.46 in the prelims earlier in the day.
           
Makany, the school record holder in the 200 freestyle, placed eighth in the race with a time of 1:36.85.
             
Records Continue to Fall, But Jayhawks Still in Fourth
Kansas swimming and diving continued to have several strong individual performances at the Big 12 Championships in Columbia, Mo. Friday night.  Leading the Jayhawks were Maria Mayrovich and Iuliia Kuzhil, both of whom had top-5 finishes in their respective events.

Payne continued to improve upon her school-record 400 yard I.M. time by earning 10th place finish in a time of 4:15.69.  Joy Bunting, Alyssa Potter and Rhynn Malloy also added to the seven points scored by Payne in the event by combining for 10 more points as a group.

Kansas' 200 yard freestyle team, consisting of Mayrovich, Kuzhil, Erin Goetz and Emily Lanteigne, broke the previous school record by just over one second with its fourth place time of 1:31.39.  The previous record was 1:32.40 and was set in 2004.

Abigail Anderson's 100 yard butterfly time of 54.44 earned her a sixth-place finish and 13 points for KU.  Brittany Potter added two points to the Jayhawk total with her 15th place finish.

Mayrovich added to her impressive Big 12 Championships with a fifth-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle.  Her time of 1:47.22 was just two-tenths of a second off of the school-record and scored 14 points for KU.

Freshman Stephanie Payne finished in 10th place in the 100 yard breaststroke in a time of 1:03.86.

Kuzhil, like Mayrovich, continued to show why she is one of the best swimmers in the conference with her third place finish in the 100 yard backstroke.  Her time of 53.63 shattered her previous school-record by four-tenths of a second and gave Kansas 16 points.  Anderson added 11 Jayhawk points with an eighth-place finish.

On the three meter diving board, Kansas placed three divers in the top nine.  Meghan Proehl and Erin Mertz placed seventh and eighth with 279.10 and 274.3 points, respectively.  Hannah McMacken finished in ninth place with a score of 278.30, but did not qualify for the finals.

Benson Breaks Two School Records to Lead Cyclones
The Iowa State swimming and diving team collected a large sum of points in the 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 3-meter diving to stand in fifth place with 225 points heading into the final day of competition. Texas A&M leads the way with 582 points.

The breaststroke duo of Jeli Nixt and Marni Benson both showed their strength in the 100 with Benson finishing second (1:01.72) and Nixt third (1:01.82). Their times earned them All-Big 12 first-team honors and make them the top-two Cyclones all-time in the event. They also both went under the NCAA ‘B’ qualifying mark. Krista Moyer and Lindsey Frodyma both earned the Cyclones points in the event as well. Moyer finished 12th and her prelim time of 1:04.16 places her fifth all-time while Frodyma touched the wall in 14th with her prelim time of 1:05.04 placing her eighth all-time.

“It was fantastic, it was like watching practice,” said head coach Duane Sorenson. “Marni and Jeli were right next to each other and they were touching the walls together. Marni kept her stroke together and was able to out touch Jeli”

In the final heat of the preliminary session, Lindsay Wegner swam to an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 54.96 in the 100 back to make it to the evening finals of the event. In the evening, Wegner finished seventh in the finals (55.08).

“Wegs had a fantastic day,” said Sorenson. “She got into the consolation heat of the 100 fly with a personal best and came back in the 100 back, destroyed her personal best by 1.3 seconds and placed in both the 100 fly and 100 back, a tough double.”

Wegner was not the only Cyclone backstroker to see success in the event. Megan Thompson swam to a 12th-place finish and fifth in the ISU record books with her 55.98 time from prelims. Freshmen Dainelle Levings, Hannah Smith and Elizabeth Holman along with sophomore Amy Bauer finished the race in under a minute for the best times of their careers.

“This morning was so much fun because they all lit it up,” said Sorenson. “We knew that they could do this, we have seen it in practice but not in a meet. To have them all swim personal best times was just fantastic.”

The Cyclones began the evening session with their third school record of the meet with the 200 free relay team of Abby Glaser, Lindsey Behrens, Benson and Frances Calzada. The team’s time of 1:32.92 was .03 seconds under the school record set in the 02-03 season.

Glaser could not repeat her all-conference performance in the 100 fly from last season but picked up valuable points with her 11th-place finish. Wegner also earned points with her 15th-place finish.

Tien Tran was at it again in diving, finishing fourth on 3-meter with a score of 304.85 to capture her second All-Big 12 honor of the meet. Tran will go for her third all-conference finish tomorrow on the platform.

“I thought she did great,” said diving coach Jeff Warrick. “She was a little off in prelims but did well enough to get into the finals. She really stepped up and did a great job tonight, there is still room for improvement but I am proud of how she did when the pressure was on.”

Abby Christensen finished 14th with a 239.05.