Eagle Staff Report

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team moved up a spot into third place at the NCAA Championships behind Arizona and two-time defending national champion Auburn at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on Friday.

Arizona has 361 points after Day 2 of the three-day event. Auburn is at 244 with A&M just behind at 227.

The Aggies already have scored 29 more points than they did last season, thanks in large part to a second-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay. A&M's Christine Marshall, Kristen Heiss, Codie Hansen and Julia Wilkinson swam the third-fastest time in NCAA history, finishing in 6 minutes, 59.50 seconds.

A&M's 200 medley relay team of Wilkinson, Alia Atkinson, Triin Aljand and Sarah Woods finished third in 1:37.72.

Wilkinson took third place in the 200 freestyle with a Big 12 record time of 1:43.64, followed by Marshall, who placed fifth.

Aljand added a sixth-place finish in the 100 butterfly, while Atkinson scored points with a seventh-place finish in the 100 breaststroke. Melissa Hain took eighth.

Teams will wrap up the Championships on Saturday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals set for 6 p.m.