Feb. 17, 2001
AUSTIN, Texas- The Missouri women's swimming and diving team enjoyed an amazing night on Saturday night, the final session of the 2001 Women's Big 12 Championships in Austin, Texas. Going into the night, the Tigers were planning on battling Kansas for the fifth place spot in the conference. Instead, Mizzou came full circle and finished in fourth place, passing Iowa State. The fourth place finish is the best finish in school history.
The Tigers were ignited by sophomore KATY CHANDLER in the 1650 freestyle. Chandler finished in fifth place with a time of 16:55.42, the third fastest time in school history and the third MU swimmer to ever go under 17 minutes. Chandler was followed by sophomore SARAH STOWE who placed seventh in a time of 17:05.92.
Missouri followed up the mile with a strong effort in the 200 backstroke. The Tigers SARAH LO, CHRISSY FRIEH and SARAH STOWE took first, second and third places in the consolation race. All three swimmers recorded lifetime best swims with Lo recording a 2:02.79. That race got the Tigers within eight points of the Cyclones.
Freshman ANDREA NIGH was next to take center stage for Mizzou. Nigh, who broke a 19-year old school record in the preliminary race of the 100 freestyle, finished sixth with a time of 50.88. Nigh passed Missouri Hall-of-Famer SUSAN TIETJEN for the school record. In the consolation race, ELLEN CROSS and KIM LAMBERT finished third and sixth.
The incredible race of the night was performed by senior KARA BRAMER. Bramer, seeded eighth heading into the consolation race of the 200 breaststroke, won a very close battle in a time of 2:20.13, the third fastest time in school history and fastest time of her career by over five seconds. Sophomore TIFFANY BOHON finished fourth in the race with a lifetime best time of 2:20.46. Sophomore LESLIE HOH placed fifth in the finals of the event in a time of 2:20.04.
Iowa State led the Tigers by eight points heading into the championships of platform diving which featured MU junior ERIN WILKE. After senior KRISTY WANNER won the consolations of the platform in her first competition of her career, Wilke placed 7th in the finals.
That tied Missouri and Iowa State and 400-400.
In the final race of the night, the 400 freestyle relay team consisting of ELLEN CROSS, KIM LAMBERT, KARA BRAMER and ANDREA NIGH exploded for a school record time of 3:24.51 and a second place finish to top the Cyclones for fourth place.
FINAL SCORES:
TEXAS 997.50 NEBRRASKA 608.50 TEXAS A&M 565 MISSOURI 434 IOWA STATE 426 KANSAS 396