Physicists working on the Manhattan Project named the smallest measure of time a "shake," after the phrase "two shakes of a lamb's tail."
A shake was probably all that separated Texas A&M swimmer Julia Wilkinson from Texas' Kathleen Hersey in the 200-yard individual medley at the Big 12 Championships on Thursday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.
Wilkinson became the Big 12 champion with a time of 1 minute, 55.81 seconds. Hersey, the 2009 NCAA runner-up in the event, hit the wall in 1:55.92. Both Wilkinson and Hersey made the NCAA "A" cut with their times.
"[Julia's] just been training well and is in a good place," A&M women's head coach Steve Bultman said. "I expected her to do well, but it was going to be a good race with her and Hersey. We just had some really good swims all over the place, though, so it's been fun."
Wilkinson's victory capped a big night for the Aggie women. A&M won four of Day 2's five events to take the team lead with 357 points after seven events. The Texas women are in second place with 285 points withe Missouri in third at 167.
The Aggie women had two 1-2 finishes to help push them past the Longhorns. Kristen Heiss won the 500 freestyle in 4:40.90 while Maureen McLaine was second in 4:42.95. And Jaele Patrick and Janie Potvin finished 1-2 in the 1-meter springboard diving.
Patrick was the only diver to score over 300 points, and she did it in both the prelims and the finals. Patrick led after each round in the finals and finished with 317.25 points.
Texas' Lauren Caldwell trailed Patrick for most of the finals, but a strong finish by Potvin in the final two rounds helped her pass Caldwell for second place with 292.7 points. Caldwell finished in third with 291.3.
"Going one-two [in diving] was awesome," Bultman said. "We had girls stepping up all over the place. [A&M diving coach Jay Lerew] is doing a great job for us. The girls coming through for us was huge."
The A&M women also won the 200 freestyle relay with Maria Sommer, Alia Atkinson, Sarah Woods and Wilkinson finishing in 1:29.31 ahead of Texas' 1:29.45.
The Aggie men are in second with 291 points behind Texas' 352.
The A&M men's best finish of the night came in the 200 freestyle relay with Balazs Makany, Casey Strange, Jason Bergstrom and John Dalton finishing second in 1:18.62. Texas won in 1:17.75 while Missouri finished third in 1:20.45.
"We feel we've got a good shot [of making the NCAA cut] in the 200 free relay," Aggie men's head coach Jay Holmes said. "We actually did a really good job in it. We're going to get a lot better the further into the season we go. We've still got some work to do as a team, but we feel good about at least seven of our guys making the NCAAs."
Holmes praised Omar Enriquez, who swam an NCAA "B" cut time of 4:20.66 in the 500 freestyle, and Casey Strange, who took third in the 50 freestyle at 19.86.
The guy that most impressed Holmes on Thursday, though, was 500 free consolation heat winner Jensen Ried, who finished ninth overall in 4:33.83.
"He's had two shoulder surgeries and different rehabs," Holmes said. "He hasn't really swum well in three years because of the shoulder problems. It was a whole lot of fun for the team to see him win the consolation heat. A lot of people two years ago thought his career was over, but he just kept battling back."
The Big 12 Championships continue Friday and wraps up Saturday.