Yarrison takes second diving title at Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- UT junior diver Mary Yarrison scored her second conference diving title in as many nights to lead Texas on day three of the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships Friday evening at Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Texas continues to sit in second place with 633 points. Texas A&M leads the meet with 651 points. For a second consecutive night, the Texas diving contingent delivered substantial points for the overall team standings, contributing 79 points in the one-meter event. Yarrison (Springfield, Va.) captured her first Big 12 one-meter title with a score of 330.20, and the 2006 Big 12 one-meter champion, sophomore Kathryn Kelly (Longwood, Fla.), took second with a total of 297.50. Junior Jessica Livingston (Houston, Texas) placed third with 295.25, and sophomore Kara-Jayne Salamone (Cooper City, Fla.) placed fourth at 277.80. Senior Nikki Triplett (Houston, Texas) took eighth at 250.40. Senior Connie Brown (Andover, Mass.) picked up a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in the 100 backstroke with her second-place time of 54.18 in the 100 backstroke. Senior Elaine Ferritto (Columbus, Ohio) touched in 55.11 for seventh place, and sophomore Lindsay Voyles (Austin, Texas) took eighth in 55.41. Senior Katie Robinson (Dillsboro, Ind.) took nearly a second off of her season best in the 100 butterfly, taking second in 53.35 for a NCAA automatic-qualifying mark. Brown placed fourth in 53.81, while sophomore Jacqueline Martin-Lacey (Nashville, Tenn.) placed fifth in 55.18 and sophomore Hee-Jin Chang (Seoul, Korea) took seventh in 56.03. Texas fell just shy of earning a NCAA automatic bid in the 200-yard freestyle relay, but the time turned in by Brown, freshman Alex Basso (Houston, Texas), Robinson and sophomore Hee-Jin Chang (Seoul, Korea) likely will warrant a NCAA invitation. The quartet took second in 1:31.08, falling just shy of the NCAA "A" cut standard of 1:31.01. Freshman Susana Escobar (Queretaro, Mexico) continued a solid initial Big 12 meet with a fourth-place showing in the 400 individual medley, taking fourth in a personal-best time of 4:17.58. Junior Macie Garrett (Nashville, Tenn.) placed seventh in 4:22.23 while sophomore Alison Soelter (Ulysses, Kan.) took eighth in 4:22.58. Sophomore Alexi Spann (Austin, Texas) claimed the consolation final in a season-best time of 4:19.74. Senior Elizabeth Tinnon (Bowling Green, Ky.) topped her meet record in the 100 breaststroke, but Texas A&M's Alia Atkinson went even further, taking the new meet record in 1:00.29. Tinnon finished in 1:00.44 for second place, senior Leah Avilla (Livermore, Calif.) placed third in 1:01.42 and Spann took fourth in 1:02.08. Basso added a sixth-place showing in the 200 freestyle in 1:48.76, and junior Delia Huang (Austin, Texas) placed eighth in 1:50.63. The fourth and final day of the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships begins Saturday at 10 a.m. with the 200 backstroke preliminary round. The platform-diving preliminary gets underway at 10:30 a.m.
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