Kansas still third at league

? Kansas University remained in third place Friday after the third day of the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Jayhawks have a three-day score of 309.5 heading into today’s final competition. Texas leads with 732 points after 29 events and Texas A&M is in second (475).

The Longhorns led the men’s division as well with 708 points, Texas A&M is in second (612) and Missouri is third (495).

The third day for KU was highlighted by Kristen Johnson’s fourth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:04.05. Gwen Haley took fifth in the 400 IM at 4:21.67.

Amy Gruber finished sixth in the 200 freestyle at 1:49.95, and Aly Colver placed seventh, clocked at 1:50.08 for a new career-best time. In the 100 backstroke, Whitney Sondall claimed sixth with a career-best time of 56.13.

Patti Stringham was seventh in the one-meter diving competition with a score of 255.95.

Kansas also finished fourth in the 400 medley relay, clocking in at 3:50.12.

Also Friday, Sarah Wanezek set two individual records and helped a Texas relay break another. Wanezek won the 100 butterfly in a record time of 52.88 seconds and upended defending Big 12 champion and record holder Joscelin Yeo, who finished second in 53.61.

Yeo’s old record was 53.19. Both Wanezek and Yeo qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Wanezek, a sophomore, came back later in the competition to win the 100 backstroke in a 53.46, breaking the old record of 53.68 set by Erin Maher of Texas in 1998.

In the night’s final event, Wanezek swam the backstroke leg of the 400 individual medley and lead the Longhorns to the record in 3:39.17, breaking the old record set by the Longhorns in 2001 of 3:39.53. Yeo, Amanda Larence and Tanica Jamison were the other relay members for the Longhorns.

Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen and Chris Kemp won individual events on Friday and led the Longhorns to a victory in the 400 medley relay in 3:10.43. Crocker won the 100 butterfly (46.96), Hansen the 100 breaststroke (53.38) and Kemp the 200 free (1:37.15). All three swimmers qualified for the NCAAs.

Another surprise in the women’s division came in the 400 individual medley when Ashley Roark of Texas A&M claimed her first Big 12 title with a swim of 4:18.66, beating Texas’ Alisa Schuknecht, who finished second (4:19.43).

Schuknecht jumped out to an early lead at after the butterfly and the backstroke, but Roark took the lead during the breaststroke before finishing with a strong freestyle.

Today is the final day of competition with preliminaries beginning at 10:30 a.m. Diving finals start at 5:30 p.m. and swimming finals start at 6:30 p.m.