Big 12 Championships Recap: Kansas Broke Eight School Records
March 3, 2009
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Kansas swimming and diving participated in a four-day Big 12 Championship meet last weekend in Columbia, Mo. at the Mizzou Aquatics Center. Texas won the event with 893 points, while KU placed fourth with 493 points.
In total, Kansas set eight new school records and broke all but three 2008-09 season swimming records. Of the eight new school records, all five relays’ records were shattered. KU’s relay teams beat every previous record by at least one full second. Kansas also set 17 new team season-best times, and only three swimming events did not have their season-best revised at the Championships. In total, Kansas had 81 swims and 69 of those resulted in new personal best times.
The medley relay teams for the Jayhawks consisted of Iuliia Kuzhil, Danielle Herrmann, Abigail Anderson and Maria Mayrovich. That group broke the one-year old records in both the 200 and 400 yard medley relays. The 200 yard medley relay recorded a time of 1:38.45, smashing the previous record by 1.99 seconds. The 400 yard medley relay time was 3:38.23, beating the previous record set in 2008 of 3:40.19.
In addition to the Jayhawk medley relay teams, Kansas broke all three freestyle relay records. The 200 yard freestyle team, consisting of Mayrovich, Kuzhil, Erin Goetz and Emily Lanteigne, touched the wall in a time of 1:31.39. That time broke the record set in 2004 of 1:32.40.
Mayrovich, Goetz, Lanteigne and Anne Liggett comprised the 400 yard freestyle relay team which set a new record in a time of 3:19.18, smashing the previous record set in 2004 of 3:22.39. Likewise, the 800 yard freestyle relay team consisting of Lanteigne, Liggett, Goetz and Shannon Garlie broke the old record by over four seconds. Their time of 7:13.86 smashed the previous record of 7:17.91.
While the Jayhawk relays were a celebration of Kansas’ overall team depth, several Jayhawks shined individually. Kuzhil and freshman Stephanie Payne are new school-record holders while swimmers like Mayrovich, freshmen Abigail Anderson and Garlie nearly broke school records en route to team season-best performances.
Kuzhil’s backstroke times put her at the top of all the previous backstrokers in Kansas swimming history. Kuzhil broke both backstroke records. Her 100 yard backstroke time of 53.63 was over 1.07 seconds faster than Jenny Short’s time in 2007. Her 200 yard backstroke time of 1:58.05 also beat Jenny Short’s time of 1:58.82.
Payne’s record may have been the most eye-opening performance of the weekend as she broke a 14 year record by 4.01 seconds. Payne, who did not own KU’s season-best performance entering the weekend, touched the wall in a time of 4:15.69. That time smashed former All-American Kristin Nilsen’s time of 4:19.70.
Mayrovich narrowly missed breaking Tammy Thomas’ 26 year-old short freestyle records. She set team season-best times in the 50, 100 and 200 yard freestyle events. Her time of 48.45 seconds while leading off in the 400 yard freestyle relay was only 0.05 seconds away from Thomas’ record.
Freshman Anderson, much like Payne, had a break-out meet. She was a part of the new school-record holding medley relay teams and set a new season-best in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 54.31.
Freshman Garlie improved her 1650 freestyle time by over 30 seconds while setting a new team season-best time of 16:47.23.
The best individual performances for Kansas by place came from Mayrovich and Kuzhil. Mayrovich placed third in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events. She also placed fifth in the 200 yard freestyle. Kuzhil tallied a third-place finish in the 100 yard backstroke. Other stellar individual performances came from Herrmann, Anderson and Garlie, all of whom earned sixth-place finishes.
Please check back with kuathletics.com later in the week for an announcement on qualifiers for the NCAA Championships.
