Basso collects NCAA berth in day two preliminaries at Big 12 Championships
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- UT freshman Alex Basso's NCAA automatic-qualifying swim in the 200 individual medley highlighted the day two preliminary round for Texas Thursday morning at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships. Basso (Houston, Texas) clocked a personal-best time of 2:00.21 to take second place in the preliminary round and pick up a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark. UT now has 10 NCAA automatic berths and its second of the Big 12 Championships. Basso will be joined in this evening's 200 IM final by senior Elaine Ferritto (Columbus, Ohio), who took fourth in 2:01.17, and sophomore Alison Soelter (Ulysses, Kan.), who placed seventh in 2:01.89. Texas landed two finals berths in the 500 freestyle on the strength of season-best times from freshman Susana Escobar (Queretaro, Mexico) and junior Delia Huang (Austin, Texas). Escobar took third in 4:47.88, and Huang placed fifth in 4:48.12. The Longhorns tacked on two more finals berths in the 50 freestyle from sophomore Hee-Jin Chang (Seoul, Korea) and freshman Margaret Bardin (Burlington, N.C.). Chang, who anchored UT's 200 medley relay to a Big 12 meet record time of 1:38.36 in Wednesday's finals, fell just shy of the NCAA "A" cut standard of 22.75, clocking a season-best 22.90. Bardin took eighth in 23.44. The three-meter diving preliminary round began at 12:30 p.m. Central and will conclude at approximately 1:30 p.m. The finals are slated for 7:45 p.m.
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