Basking in their first conference title, members of the Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team went to last year's NCAA Championships feeling good about themselves and happy to be getting into the pool with the best teams in the country.
This year, the Aggies will return to the NCAA meet feeling good about their chances of joining the best teams on the medals stand.
The A&M women will have 14 swimmers competing at the national championships, the largest contingent ever for the Aggies. After winning their second consecutive Big 12 meet, the Aggies hope to improve on last year's eighth-place finish, the best in program history.
"The whole year we've wanted to be top five," said junior Julia Wilkinson, who ranks first nationally in the 100-yard freestyle. "The last couple of years, I guess we were looking at programs like maybe Auburn or Arizona and thinking they were so good. We didn't really put ourselves on that level. We're going in this year thinking we can race those girls. We almost beat Auburn in a dual meet this year, so we're ready to race the best."
The NCAA Championships will be held at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on Thursday through Saturday.
Last year in Minnesota, A&M had 198 points to finish in the Top 10 for the first time. But the Aggies were two spots behind the Texas team they'd beaten at the Big 12 meet.
"Last year, the whole goal was to win the Big 12 meet for the first time ever," Wilkinson said. "We were really successful again at conference this year, but we're looking ahead to NCAAs, because this is where we need to shine."
A&M coach Steve Bultman said his swimmers should be better prepared for the national meet.
"We've gotten ourselves to the level where NCAAs is the big deal, what we're pointing for," Bultman said. "Last year will help us a lot. The girls are definitely going in with a different attitude."
The Aggies' confidence got a boost during their only dual-meet loss of the season. Defending national champion and top-ranked Auburn outlasted A&M 155-139, but the Aggies had a chance to win going into the final event.
A&M has made steady progress up the national rankings during Bultman's nine years as head coach. A&M's juniors were considered among the best signing classes in the country, and their success has boosted A&M recruiting.
"If you're not a Top 10 program, there's a lot of recruits that won't even look at you," Bultman said. "I feel like we've always been able to get girls to improve. Now we're getting better recruits and getting them to improve. Plus, I think the girls are buying into [the program] a lot more and believing in themselves."
Bultman said the gap between A&M and the national title contenders is narrowing. The Aggies could get closer by claiming the first individual NCAA championship in program history.
Triin Aljand and Wilkinson are considered legitimate threats to win gold this weekend. Along with her national-best time of 47.8 seconds in the 100 freestyle, Wilkinson ranks fourth in the 200 individual medley at 1:56.12. Aljand, also a junior, ranks second in the 50 freestyle (22.02) and fifth in the 100 butterfly (52.26).
"I love this school, this program and this team more than I can even explain to anyone," Wilkinson said. "To be one of the first national champions would be an honor and a way to do something for Steve and [assistant coach] Tracy [Duhac]. If you can take a skinny, small-town girl from the middle of southwestern Ontario and turn her into a national champion, that's a pretty big thing for a coach to do."
Along with five relay teams, the Aggies have individual NCAA qualifiers in Christine Marshall, Kristen Heiss, Erin Mahoney, Jenni Stratton, Codie Hansen, Emily Neal, Alia Atkinson, Melissa Hain, Wilkinson and Aljand.
• Larry Bowen's e-mail address is larry.bowen@theeagle.com.