Big 12 Championships: Aggies and Longhorns in First After Day Two

AUSTIN, Texas, February 28. TEXAS A&M women maintained the lead on day two of the 2008 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships while the Texas men moved into first after sweeping the days' races at the Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

The Aggies finished the day with 325 points followed by Texas (271), Kansas (185.5), Missouri (167.5), Iowa State (124) and Nebraska (117). On the men's side Texas sits in the lead with 380 points trailed by Texas A&M (247) and Missouri (246).

The Aggie women swept the days' races as Jenni Stratton took top honors in the 500-yard freestyle (4:24.79) and Julia Wilkinson claimed first in the 200-yard individual medley (1:56.12). Both set Big 12 meet records and earned NCAA automatic qualifying marks. Teammate Triin Aljand also qualfied for the NCAA's in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.02, just two tenths of a second off the meet record. The A&M relay team of Julia Wilkinson, Alia Atkinson, Triin Aljand and Christine Marshall took first in the 400-yard medley relay, setting a championship record with a time of 3:35.53. Kansas came in second at 3:40.19 followed by Iowa State at 3:43.83. Each team automatically qualified for the NCAAs with their times.

In the men's 500-yard freestyle race, Texas' Michael Klueh repeated as the Big 12 Champion in a meet record time of 4:11.41, qualifying him for NCAA's. Rick Berens (Texas) claimed the 200-yard IM at 1:46.20 while fellow Longhorn Jonathan Jackson earned first place honors in the 50-yard freestyle (19.52). The Texas men rounded out their day claiming the title in the 400-yard medley relay. Daniel Rohleder, Matthew Lowe, Rick Berens,and Jonathan Jackson swam an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 3:09.41 to earn first place honors.

Also earning NCAA automatic qualifying marks on day two were Susana Escobar (Texas) and Kristen Heiss (Texas A&M) in the 500-yard freestyle as they came in second (4:43.36) and third (4:43.56), respectively.

Texas' Mary Yarrison won the one-meter diving event for the second consecutive year with a score of 329.05.

Special thanks to the Big 12 for contributing to this report.

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