Big 12 Championships: Texas Men, Aggie Women Retain Leads After Day Three

AUSTIN, Texas, Februaury 29. TEXAS A&M women extended its lead on day three of the 2008 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships while the Texas men stayed in the top spot heading into the final day at Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

The Aggies finished the day with 687 points followed by Texas (516), Missouri (338.5), Kansas (332.5), Iowa State (235) and Nebraska (221). On the men's side, Texas sits in the lead with 768 points trailed by Missouri (526) and Texas A&M (507).

The Aggie women swept the races for the second consecutive day as each A&M champion automatically qualified for the NCAA's. Marisa Jasek, Julia Wilkinson, Sarah Woods, and Triin Aljand took the first win of the night in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a meet record time of 1:29.74. Melissa Hain repeated as the 400-yard individual medley champion finishing in 4:11.74 while teammate Triin Aljand captured the 100-yard butterfly at 52.26, breaking the 52.31 meet record she set during prelims Friday morning.

Closing the day out for the Aggies, Alia Atkinson defended her title, taking the 100-yard breaststroke for the second straight year with a time of 1:00.68 while Julia Wilkinson claimed her third straight 100-yard backstroke title in a meet record time of 52.70.

On the men's side, Texas captured each of the days' six races and automatically qualified for the NCAA's with their first place times. Jonathan Jackson, Jeremy Harris, Brian Wilson and Rick Berens captured the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:18.28 making it the fourth straight year Texas has won the relay. Berens repeated as the 100-yard butterfly champion finishing in 46.38 while Michael Klueh, fresh off his 500-yard freestyle win from the night before, took top honors in the 400-yard invidual medley for the third straight year, with a time of 3:46.09.

Rounding out the day for Texas, Dave Walters won his first individual title in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.66 setting a Big 12 meet record along the way. Matt Lowe took the top spot in the 100-yard breastroke in 53.26 while Daniel Rohleder claimed the 100-yard backstroke at 46.84.

Texas' Mary Yarrison won the women's three-meter diving event for the third straight year with a score of 381.25 while Longhorn freshman Matt Cooper claimed the men's title in the event with a score of 420.40.

Special thanks to Big 12 for contributing this report.

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