Texas claims men's and women's titles

<br>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ The Texas Longhorns, leading from start to finish, claimed both the men's and women's titles on Saturday at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships. <br><br>For

Sunday, February 24th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ The Texas Longhorns, leading from start to finish, claimed both the men's and women's titles on Saturday at the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships.

For the Texas men, it was their sixth consecutive Big 12 title and 23rd consecutive conference title under head coach Eddie Reese, a streak that dates back to the old Southwest Conference.

Texas finished the four-day event with 1,085.50 points, swimming away from Texas A&M (780.50) and Missouri (624), the only other teams in the field.

``We did what we hoped we would do and that was get better tonight,'' Reese said.

The Texas men turned in several stellar performances on Saturday, including a pair of Big 12 records in the 200-yard breaststroke and 200 backstroke.

Sophomore Brendan Hansen broke his own meet record set last year in the 200 breaststroke.

Hansen clocked a time of 1:55.68, besting his old time of 1:55.92.

``To be able to catch that record was a good stepping stone for me,'' Hansen said. ``It gave me a lot of hope for the next five weeks.''

The time was an automatic qualifier for the NCAA meet and was almost 6 seconds faster than the rest of the field.

A&M's Alfredo Jacobo was second (2:01.47).

In the 200 butterfly, Rainer Kendrick broke former Texas swimmer Nate Dusing's conference mark when he posted a 1:43.92, which qualified him for the NCAA meet.

Kendrick was named Men's Newcomer of the Meet and shared Men's Swimmer of the Meet honors with teammates Hanson and Chris Kemp.

The Texas women scored 1,055.50 points to bring home their fourth consecutive Big 12 crown.

A&M finished second (675) followed by Missouri (522), Iowa State (500), Kansas (487.50) and Nebraska (186).

The Longhorn women dominated the competition, winning all but two swimming gold medals for the entire meet.

Texas A&M freshman Tiffany Moore joined Missouri's Mariona Costa, who won the 100 breaststroke on Friday, as the only non-Texas female swimmers to win gold when she won the 1,650 freestyle.

Moore finished the event in a time of 16:45.77.

All three diving events were won by A&M's Meghan Zack, who was named Women's Diver of the Meet.

Zack, who claimed both springboard events earlier in the meet, added the platform title to her resume by nailing her final two dives of the night.

Texas' Joscelin Yeo, who set a pair of Big 12 records earlier in the meet, picked up her seventh gold medal when she claimed the 200 butterfly title with a time of 1:58.00.

Yeo was named the Women's Swimmer of the Meet.