Building Champions
 Patrick Sweeps in School Record Fashion, Aggies Shine in Final Tune-up

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Senior Sarah Woods won the 50 free on

Senior Sarah Woods won the 50 free on

Feb. 6, 2010

Results

Texas A&M junior diver Jaele Patrick broke two school records to highlight the Aggie women's swimming and diving team's win over North Texas on Saturday in the final tune-up before the Big 12 Championships.

The No. 6 Aggies defeated North Texas, 178-112, to close out their 2009-10 dual meet schedule with a 7-1 record and on a six-meet winning streak. A&M now focuses its attention on the Big 12 Championships, which will be contested at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Natatorium on Feb. 24-27.

Patrick swept the one- and three-meter dives while breaking her own school record on both boards. Patrick, from Lilydale, Victoria, Australia, had already broken her three-meter record (357.90) after only five dives and finished with a gaudy 412.35 score. She took it up a notch in the one-meter by breaking the pool record of 351.15 set by Houston's Anastasia Pozdniakova while winning the 2009 NCAA title in the event. Patrick eclipsed Pozdniakova's record with a score of 360.37.

"I felt relaxed," Patrick said. "I came in just ready to do a job and managed to succeed and come through. I didn't look to break any records. I just wanted to dive a personal best and I was able to do that so it felt very good. The girls were telling me (that I had the school record after five dives), but I was like `I don't want to listen to that.' I knew I had one more dive to go and had to do my job and not look at the score. It's always great to do a PB (personal best) on five dives."

Added first-year Aggie diving coach Jay Lerew, "It's just a matter of confidence with Jaele, and she's getting right now. She's becoming very confident, especially on the big dives - the backs and gainers. She used to have problems with those, but now those are becoming her best and that's giving her a great deal of confidence. If she gets her entries down, she could be with the top three girls anywhere."


 

 

Patrick's big day was the highlight, but the rest of the Aggie dive crew made noise as well. All five Aggie divers achieved NCAA Zone qualifiers, including senior Emily Watson, senior Haley Haynes and sophomore Loren Lujan who grabbed Zone qualifiers for the first time on Saturday. All five divers have punched their ticket to the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, which will be contested in College Station March 12-14.

"We had three divers that hadn't made Zone qualifier this season, and it's not easy," Lerew said. "(The NCAA) upped the qualifying scores this season, but they all made it and that's nice. They dove really well. You can't miss one and still make (the qualifying standard)."

As a team, the Aggies swept all 16 events against the Mean Green, including 13 in the pool. On "Senior Day," seven individual races were won by Aggie seniors - two by Melissa Hain, two by Kristen Heiss, and one by Alia Atkinson, Sarah Woods and Julia Wilkinson. Hain won the 100 free (50.90) and 400 IM (4:17.27), Heiss won the 100 back (55.83) and 200 back (1:58.41), Atkinson took the 100 breast (1:03.99), Woods touched first in the 50 free (23.41) and Wilkinson won the 200 free (1:48.66). Other seniors honored on Saturday were Ella Doerge, Haynes, Renee Iserman, Rebekah Love, Emily Neal and Watson.

"This is a special group of seniors," head swimming coach Steve Bultman said. "Obviously they've done some great things in the water, but they are first-class citizens all the time. The grades that they make in the curriculums they are studying are just amazing. They've been great representatives of the program, of the Athletic Department and Texas A&M in and out of the pool."

Others grabbing wins were freshman Maureen McLaine in the 1,000 free (9:49.82), freshman Kendra Chernoff in the 100 fly (54.95) and 200 fly (2:02.01), junior Caroline Maxvill in the 200 breast (2:22.25) and junior Hannah Kinder in the 500 free (4:54.44).

The Aggies swept the top three spots in both relays with the foursome of Wilkinson, Atkinson, Chernoff and junior Maria Sommer winning the 400 medley relay in 3:44.40, and Doerge, Atkinson, freshman Kristina Kontrimas and Wilkinson winning the 200 free relay in 1:32.91.

"I was pleased with the way we swam today," Bultman said. "We swam some good events and some off events, but we had some very good swims and the divers did an outstanding job, as well. I'm very happy with where we are right now. We have a few things left to fine-tune, but we're in good shape."
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