Texas widens lead in Big 12 swimming and diving championships

<br>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ Texas A&M's Scott Mueller gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about Friday when he outdueled Texas' Joey Montague to capture the title in the 400-yard Individual

Saturday, February 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ Texas A&M's Scott Mueller gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about Friday when he outdueled Texas' Joey Montague to capture the title in the 400-yard Individual Medley at the Big 12 Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Longhorns still took home the majority of first place finishes and widened their lead in the race for the conference title.

Before Mueller's gold-medal performance, the Longhorns had won every event that had been contested at the Texas A&M Rec Center Natatorium.

Mueller put an end to that streak by posting a time of 3 minutes 51.11 seconds, which broke the A&M school record of 3:51.17 set by Steve Lutz in 1991.

The Aggies got another boost later in the meet when senior Riley Janes picked up a gold in the 100-yard backstroke.

Janes, who finished with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 47.59, out-touched Texas' Tommy Hannan, the three-time defending champion, who won the silver with a time of 47.70.

Texas, which has 742.50 points, is 218 points ahead of A&M (524.50). Missouri is third at 411.

On the women's side, the Texas women continued to dominate the competition and stretched their lead over the rest of the field.

The Texas women have scored 759.50 points and are followed by A&M (436), Iowa State (337), Missouri (319), Kansas (315.50) and Nebraska (142).

Leading the effort for the Longhorns was Joscelin Yeo, who picked up her fifth gold medal and second Big 12 meet record when she won the 100-yard butterfly. Yeo, who set a Big 12 record in the prelims of the 200-IM on Thursday, swam the 100 in an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 53.19, broke the meet record of 53.73.

Yeo also teamed with Kelly Robbins, Sarah Wanezek and Erin Phenix to collect gold in the 200-yard Medley Relay (1:39.80).

A&M's team of Courtney Patterson, Kelsey Savage, Ho and Danielle Townsend was second (1:43.25).

The only swimming event the Texas women did not win was the 100-yard breaststroke, which was won by Missouri's Mariona Costa with a time of 1:03.76. Missouri's Tiffany Bohon was second (1:03.87) followed by Petra Plaminkova of Iowa State (1:04.18).

In women's three-meter diving, Texas A&M's Meghan Zack collected her second gold of the meet by scoring 517.55 points.