COLUMBIA, Missouri, February 25. NO. 3 Texas opened the Big 12 Championships with a bang Wednesday evening, as the Longhorns toppled school and conference records in the 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle relays to take an early lead in the four-day event at the Mizzou Aquatics Center.
After two events, the Longhorns hold an 80-68 lead over second-place Texas A&M. Missouri and Kansas sit in third with 62 points, and Nebraska is in fifth with 54 points. Iowa State sits in sixth with 54 points.
UT opened the evening with a thrilling victory in the 200 medley relay from freshman Katie Riefenstahl, sophomore Carlye Ellis, freshman Kathleen Hersey and senior Hee-Jin Chang. Texas trailed Texas A&M after the first three legs before getting a scorching 21.30 anchor leg from Chang, who finished off the relay in 1:37.40, well ahead of the school record of 1:38.06 set in 2005 by Hayley McGregory, Elizabeth Tinnon, Connie Brown and Sarah Wanezek.
The mark also eclipsed the conference record of 1:37.72 set last season by Texas A&M's Julia Wilkinson, Alia Atkinson, Triin Aljand and Sarah Woods. The win was UT's first in the 200 medley relay at the Big 12 meet since 2007.
Texas rallied once more to produce the first 800 freestyle relay in school history to eclipse the seven-minute barrier. Freshman Karlee Bispo led off in 1:43.69 to break the 200 freestyle school record of 1:43.84 she set in December at the Texas Invitational. Freshman Leah Gingrich followed in 1:46.25 before giving way to freshman Katie Riefenstahl, who clocked 1:45.72 on the third leg.
Texas A&M held a lead of over one second before UT's Hersey produced a blistering 1:42.71 on the anchor leg, as Texas finished the relay in a new school, conference and meet-record time of 6:58.37. The mark broke the school record of 7:01.64 set by the same quartet at the Texas Invitational in December. It rewrote the conference record of 6:59.50 set by Texas A&M's Christine Marshall, Kristen Heiss, Codie Hansen and Wilkinson last season.
For the men, No. 3 Texas scored a new school record and two relay victories to open the 2009 Big 12 Championships Wednesday evening at the Mizzou Aquatics Center.
Texas A&M holds a one-point lead after the opening day with 113 points, while Texas sits in second with 112 points. Missouri is in third place with 105 points.
UT opened the night with a 200-yard medley relay that took down a six-year-old school record and nearly wiped out the American record set by another quartet of Texas Exes three years ago. Junior Hill Taylor led off the relay with a 21.46 split on the opening backstroke leg. Senior Agustin Magruder picked up the breaststroke leg in 23.79, and junior Ricky Berens clocked 20.49 on the butterfly leg. Freshman Jimmy Feigen split an astounding 18.49 on the anchor to finish off the relay in 1:24.23. The mark broke the school record of 1:24.46 set by Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Daniel DiToro and Ian Crocker at the 2003 NCAA Championships.
Texas added a decisive victory in the 800 freestyle relay in 6:15.13. Berens led off in 1:32.01, less than two-tenths of a second off of teammate Dave Walters' American record mark of 1:31.83. Senior Michael Klueh followed in 1:33.66, and senior Ryan Verlatti followed in 1:35.44. Walters brought the relay home in 1:34.02.
UT added a pair of top-five diving finishes from freshman Drew Livingston and senior Jonathan Wilcox. Livingston took second in the one-meter event with 383.95 points, and Wilcox took fourth with 366.65 points. The Texas men's divers will resume competition on Friday with the three-meter event.
Special thanks to Texas for contributing this report.
Results: Big 12 Championships
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