Swimcloud

Texas Men Take, A&M Women Extend Lead at Big 12's

By Anders Melin

The evening started off as any good final session should – with an upset. Missouri claimed its first conference relay title in the history of the women's program with a victory in the women’s 200 yard freestyle relay. Shara Stafford posted a top 15 time in the nation in the 50 free with her 22.06 lead off, followed by Cassie Cunningham, Lisa Nathanson, and Doucette, recording a final time of 1.28.43, narrowly missing the A standard by .08 and out-touching the 2011 All-American Texas relay (Bispo, B Adams, Lobb, and Amundsen) by .14. Texas A&M (McElhaney, Bosma, Benjamin, and Dittmer) took third with 1.29.81.


In the men’s 200 freestyle relay Texas (Moore, Surhoff, Hill, Feigen) continued their winning streak from previous years and cruised to victory with 1.18.23, with Feigen being the only swimmer in the field posting a sub-19 split with his 18.98. Missouri (Melo, Hladik, Krause, Conroy) took second with 1.19.62 followed by Texas A&M (Fonua, Wilson, Suarez, Ariens) posting 1.21.17 for third. The B-team for A&M recorded a 1.19.13 in the consolation final.

The women’s 500 freestyle turned out to a tremendous duel between Texas A&M teammates Maureen McLaine and reigning champion in the event Cammile Adams. McLaine gained a slight lead after the 200 and kept it until the finish, putting her hand on the wall in 4.41.19, .99 ahead of Adams’ 4.42.18. Texas’ Kelsey Leneave finished third with 4.45.19.

The top two spots of the men’s 500 freestyle championship final turned out to be an exact replica of previous year’s as Texas’ Jackson Wilcox took the lead halfway through the race and finished in 4.19.46 with a 1.33 second gap to Michael McBroom. Freshman Jake Ritter barely surpassed Missouri’s Eegan Groome and ensured a 1-2-3 finish for Texas with a time of 4.21.89.

Shara Stafford continued her sprinty evening by opening a lead after the fly-backstroke leg in the championship final of women’s 200 IM with a stellar 52.90. Texas’ Karlee Bispo soon passed her and cruised to victory in a 1.56.05 with A&M’s Kim Pavlin taking second in 1.56.63. Stafford touched the wall as third, posting 1.57.15.

Texas men took 1-2-3 in both the consolation as well as the championship final of the 200 IM tonight. Nick D’Innocenzo, Austin Surhoff, and Neil Caskey followed the example of their teammates from the B-final (Eric Friedland, Timothy Johnson, and Tripp Cooper), posting 1.45.40, 1.45,58, and 1.46.79 respectively.

The women’s 50 free added to the total of Texas 1-2-3’s as Ellen Lobb (22.56), Kelsey Amundsen (22.71) and Bethany Adams (22.73) swept the top three spots in the championship final.

The men’s final turned out slightly more diverse, as Jimmy Feigen touched first in 19.26 seconds, followed by A&M’s John Dalton in 19.72 and Missouri’s Melo in 19.96.

Concluding the second day, Texas A&M is in the lead on the women’s side with 342 points, followed by Texas on 296 and Missouri with 225. Kansas with 128 and Iowa State with 121 rounds out the field.

On the men’s side Texas has secured a respectable lead with 371.5 points versus 267 for Texas A&M and 222.5 for Missouri.

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