Texas A&M Continues Sweep of Big 12 Swimmer of the Month Awards

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, November 30. THE Big 12 Conference head swimming and diving coaches selected the November Big 12 Swimmers and Divers of the Month Wednesday.

Both the Female and Male Big 12 Swimmers of the Month are from Texas A&M, while the divers compete for Texas. For the second straight month, A&M's Rebecca Sturdy and Matt Rose were selected as Swimmers of the Month. Longhorn divers Nicole Pohorenec and Mark Shattuck swept the diving honors in November.

Sturdy becomes the first freshman female to receive consecutive "of the month" awards in Big 12 history. In only her sixth collegiate meet, Sturdy automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships at the Student Recreation Center in College Station, Texas, during the Texas A&M Invitational Nov. 21-23 — the same site where she will compete at the 2004 NCAA Championships March 18-20, as the Aggies will host the event.

The Anacortes, Wash., native, qualified in the preliminary races of three events: 200-meter individual medley (2:01.06, yards), 100-meter backstroke (55.16, yards) and the 200-meter backstroke (1:59.78, yards).

In the finals she went on to win these races. Sturdy compiled second (200-m medley relay: 1:53.56/26.44 third leg split; 800-m freestyle
relay: 8:10.33/no split available), third (100-m butterfly: 1:00.05; 100-m freestyle: 56.10), fourth (400-m medley relay: 4:09.83/59.70 third leg split; 400-m free relay: 3:45.80/55.59 second leg split) and fifth place (50-m free: 25.87; 200-m free relay: 1:43.97/25.41 anchor leg
split) finishes in the other events she competed in at the meet. She led the No. 17 Aggies to a runner-up finish o No. 11 UCLA.

Fellow Aggie Rose continues his success in the pool. The four-time Big 12 Male Swimmer of the Month (January 2002-03; October and November
2003) posted three wins apiece at Penn State on Nov. 7 and No. 17 Pittsburgh on Nov. 8 to help A&M defeat both teams 176-117 and 140.5-100.5, respectively. At Penn State he took home the gold as the leadoff in the 200-yard medley relay (1:30.85/22.42 split) and in the 200-yard free relay (1:22.21/20.24 split) and in the 50 free race (20.34). Against Pittsburgh the Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, senior helped his team win the 400 free and medley relays (3:00.87/44.57;
3:21.05/48.92) as the leadoff once again, and individually captured the 50 free (20.45). Rose is the reigning Big 12 50-yard freestyle champion (19.66).

A Canadian national record holder in the 50-meter freestyle, Rose shaved .85 tenths of a second off of his previous best of 22.80 at the Texas A&M Invitiational, after swimming 21.95 in that event. Last summer Rose broke the oldest swimming record in Canadian history with an 22.80 clocking at the Pan American Games. Ultimately, Rose earned a spot in the final with that time, and placed seventh overall. Also, at the A&M Invitational he recorded victories in the 200-m free relay (1:29.50/21.09 anchor leg), 400-m medley relay (3:40.62/54.15 leadoff), 200-m medley relay (1:40.56/24.80 leadoff), 100-m back (53.99), 100-m free (49.12) and 400-m free relay (3:19.68/48.64 anchor leg). The Aggies were first at their home event, tallying 2,433 points.

2003-04 BIG 12 SWIMMERS AND DIVERS OF THE MONTH

Female Swimmers

October: Rebecca Sturdy, Fr., Texas A&M

November: Rebecca Sturdy, Fr., Texas A&M

Female Divers

October: Alida DiPlacido, So., Texas A&M

November: Nicole Pohorenec, Jr., Texas

Male Swimmers

October: Matt Rose, Sr., Texas A&M

November: Matt Rose, Sr., Texas A&M

Male Divers

October: Evan Watters, So., Missouri

November: Mark Shattuck, So., Texas

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