Austin, Texas
- The Nebraska swimming and diving team
continued competition at the 2011 Big 12 Championships in Austin, Texas on
Thursday morning. Four Huskers qualified for "B" finals in two different
events, while records were falling all around Austin for the NU squad.
500-Yard
Freestyle Prelims
In the first event of the day, the 500-yard
freestyle prelims, Bailey Pons qualified for the "B" finals in the best
performance of her young career. Her time of 4:50.09 was the fifth-best
500-freestyle time recorded at Nebraska, beating out Heather Parks time of
4:50.30 in 1996. Pon's previous career-best time was 4:55.84, set at this
year's Missouri Invitational. She finished with the ninth-best time in prelims,
a mere .89 of a second out of the "A" finals.
200-Individual
Medley Prelims
Kelsey Larson qualified for the "C" finals
with her time of 2:05.32, her fastest time of the season by nearly four
seconds.
Missing the finals didn't stop Ellan Dufour
from notching her name in NU's record books. Dufour's time of 2:05.59 became
the 20th fastest time in NU history. Her previous career-high was 2:07.87. Kristin Strecker also set her career-best
time in the event at 2:06.70.
50-Freestyle
Prelims
Ariel Weech highlighted the 50-freestyle with
the sixth-fastest time in NU history. Her time of 23.15 qualified her for the
"B" finals, .64 of a second faster than her previous career-best time. Weech
missed the "A" finals by .01 of a second.
Hayley Martin and Lexie Halberstadt also made
sure their names would be in the Nebraska record books. Both qualified for the
"B" finals as well, with times of 23.19 (eighth all-time) and 23.48 (12th
all-time), respectively.
Session
1: Huskers Set School Record in 200-yard Medley Relay
The Nebraska 200-yard medley relay team of Ellan
Dufour, Shannon Guy, Kelsey Grushecky and Ariel Weech swam the fastest relay in
school history. Their time of 1.41.08 beat out the previous record of 1:41.21.
That record stood since 1998, and that team featured Olympian and World Record
holder Therese Alshammar and Olympian Helene Muller.
Click here to follow the Big 12 Championships live
Thursday's Finals (6:00 p.m.)
One-Meter
Diving
500-Yard
Freestyle
200-Individual
Medley
50-Yard
Freestyle
200-Freestyle
Relay Finals
