Alia Atkinson was one of four Aggies to win an event and help Texas A&M stay in the women's lead at the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships on Friday at the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium.
The meet wraps up Saturday with the final seven events on both the men's and women's side.
Atkinson won the 100-yard breaststroke and set the Big 12 meet record with a time of 59.80 seconds. Her time also made the NCAA "A" cut and guaranteed her a return trip to the NCAA Championships.
And it helped A&M hold off the hard-charging Texas Longhorns in the team standings. A&M finished Day 3 with 662 points, while second-place Texas is at 618. Missouri is in third with 330.
"This morning we did what we had to do to get people in the finals," A&M women's head coach Steve Bultman said. "Then this afternoon we came back and raced well. Alia winning the breaststroke was huge."
Atkinson kept Texas from sweeping the top two spots in the 100 breaststroke, but the Longhorns used the event to cut A&M's lead to 13 points.
The Aggies rebounded in the 100 backstroke with Julia Wilkinson winning (52.77), Tess Simpson taking third (53.30) and Lindsey King fourth (53.58). That helped A&M rebuild its lead to 44 points heading into Saturday's finale.
"Julia finishing in the 100 back with Tess and Lindsey did a great job," Bultman said. "We knew we were going to have a battle on our hands. It's going to be fun [Saturday]."
A&M's diving duo of Jaele Patrick and Janie Potvin again finished 1-2 in the women's 3-meter springboard event. Patrick won with 358.30. Potvin finished fourth in the preliminaries but her 336.95 points in the final pushed her ahead of Missouri's Jordan Morcom, who placed third at 327.25.
Patrick and Potvin finished 1-2 on the 1-meter springboard Thursday.
Grant Nel continued A&M's Day 3 dominance in diving by winning the men's 3-meter with 425.00 points.
The A&M men are in second in the team standings with 572 points. Texas leads at 761 with Missouri in third at 476.
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