Big 12 Championships: Day Three

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, February 26. FOUR Big 12 Championship meet records and one overall meet record fell on day three of the swimming and diving championships as the Texas men’s team and Texas A&M women’s squad held on to their leads.

The Longhorn men swept all six swimming events to extend their lead (761), followed by Texas A&M (572) and Missouri (476). UT swept all six swimming races, as the 400-medley relay of Ricky Berens, Scott Spann, Hill Taylor and David Walters (3:08.23) started off the night with a win. Bryan Collins swam the second-fastest time in the country this season in the 400 IM and broke his own Big 12 Championship meet and overall record by almost two seconds. Berens was victorious in the 100 butterfly (46.34), Scott Jostes took first in the 200 freestyle (1:34.39), Eric Friedland (53.44) won the 100 breaststroke and Taylor repeated as the 100-yard backstroke champion (46.87).

The A&M women (662) narrowly maintained their first-place standing despite dropping the first four swimming events to second-place Texas (618). Missouri tabbed 330 points to hold onto third, followed by Kansas (285), Iowa State (230) and Nebraska (159).

The Longhorn medley team of Jessica Guro, Laura Sogar, Kathleen Hersey and Karlee Bispo won the 400-medley relay in a new meet record time of 3:33.12. Leah Gingrich (UT) followed that performance with her third career individual title, earning gold in the 400 IM with a mark 4:09.98. In the 100-yard butterfly, Hersey grabbed her second overall title of the meet by setting a new meet record of 52.08. Bispo took home an individual championship as well with a victory in the 200 freestyle (1:44.99) for the second-straight season.

Alia Atkinson notched the Aggies first win of the day with a new meet record of 59.80 in the 100 breaststroke and senior Julia Wilkinson tallied her seventh individual and 18th overall Big 12 title when she took home the gold in the 100-yard backstroke (52.77).

A&M swept the day three diving events as Grant Nel dove to his first-career Big 12 individual title in the three-meter springboard, defeating UT’s Drew Livingston (425) with a final tally of 440.55. On the women’s side, Jaele Patrick also took her first career diving title after scoring 358.30 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.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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