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">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.
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Thursday's Finals (6:00 p.m.)
One-Meter Diving
500-Yard Freestyle
200-Individual Medley
50-Yard Freestyle
200-Freestyle Relay Finals