DALLAS, Texas, January 10. THE eighth-ranked Texas A&M swimming & diving team earned a hard fought 163-137 win over No. 18 Southern Methodist at Perkins Natatorium on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Aggies (6-0) won 11 of 16 events, setting a pool record in their first relay victory while swimming the third-fastest time in pool history in their final relay win of the day. A game Mustang squad also went under the pool record in finishing second in the first relay while swimming the fourth-fastest time in natatorium history in the final relay race.<\/p>\n
"This was a great meet for spectators to watch," A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. "There were some really close races all the way through. You can tell that we have been working pretty hard. I was really pleased with how we stepped up and raced."<\/p>\n
A&M opened the meet with a pool record in the 200-yard medley relay. The group of Megan Latone (Austin), Alia Atkinson (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia), and Marissa Jasek (San Antonio) broke the natatorium record of 1:43.71 set in 1998 by SMU by clocking a time of 1:42.19.<\/p>\n
The Aggies capped off the meet with a tight win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Atkinson, Codie Hansen (Arlington), Sarah Woods (Birmingham, Ala.), and Aljand hit the wall first in 3:22.27, four-tenths of a second ahead of the Mustangs.<\/p>\n
Junior Emily Neal (Plano) remained undefeated in 2009, winning three events against SMU. Neal's most crucial win came with two events remaining and the Aggies nursing a 10-point lead. The two-time NCAA qualifier clinched the overall victory for A&M by hitting the wall first in the 400-yard individual medley in 4:21.50. Neal also captured first in the 100-yard backstroke (56.11) and 200-yard backstroke (1:59.45).<\/p>\n
Senior Triin Aljand was one of two double winners for the Aggies against SMU. Aljand cruised to victory in the 50 free in 23.00 while holding off Mustang sophomore Elzanne Werth in the 100 fly, 54.71 to 54.81.<\/p>\n
Four-time Big 12 breaststroke champion Alia Atkinson swept both of her signature races, winning the 100 breast in 1:02.95 and the 200 breast in 2:16.56.<\/p>\n
Senior Codie Hansen, who swam club for the Dallas Mustangs during her prep career, was a winner in her old stomping grounds, taking the top spot in the 200 freestyle in 1:48.99.<\/p>\n
Freshman Rita Medrano (Aguascalientes, Mexico) captured her third 200-yard butterfly race of the season in 2:00.80.<\/p>\n
Special thanks to Texas A&M for contributing this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DALLAS, Texas, January 10. THE eighth-ranked Texas A&M swimming & diving team earned a hard fought 163-137 win over No. 18 Southern Methodist at Perkins Natatorium on Saturday afternoon. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n