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Aggie women stay in sixth place at NCAAs

Special to the Eagle

MINNEAPOLIS - The Texas A&M women's swimming and diviing team delivered the program's top finish in two relays Friday to hang on to sixth place going into the final day of the NCAA Championships.

The Aggies finished fifth in the 800-yard freestyle relay and took sixth in the 200 medley relay during the second day of the NCAA meet. A&M has 167 1/2 points, the most in school history at the national championships. Texas is in seventh with 156.

Arizona lead the meet with 375 points, and defending national champion Auburn is second at 343.

A&M sophomores Julie Wilkinson, Kristen Heiss, Codie Hansen and Christine Marshall finished the 800 freestyle relay in 7 minutes, 7.02 seconds to move past the Longhorns into sixth. It was the second-fastest time in school history.

Triin Aljand, Alia Atkinson, Rebecca Sturdy and Marshall swam the 200 medley relay in 1:38.97, the No. 3 time ever for the Aggies.

Marshall finished eight in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:47.20. She swam a lifetime best of 1:46.26 in the preliminaries. In the consolation final, Kristen Heiss placed fifth in 1:46.59.

Atkinson took first place in the consolation final of the 100 breaststroke, swimming 1:00.87.

Freshman Melissa Hain was fifth in the 400 individual medley consolation final in a time of 4:14.19, the third-fastest of her career. Jenni Stratton placed seventh in 4:16.52.

Aljand was eighth in the consolation final of the 100 butterfly in 54.44.

The final day the NCAA meet will start with preliminaries at 11 a.m. Finals are set to begin at 7 p.m. at the University Aquatic Center.