COLLEGE STATION, Texas, November 21. TEXAS A&M senior Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) lit the Student Rec Center Natatorium pool on fire on Friday night with what was thought to be the fastest 50-yard freestyle in NCAA history on the first of three days of action at the Art Adamson Invitational.
Aljand, who had never cleared the 22-second barrier before in her career, smoked her way to an NCAA record time of 21.61, supposedly breaking the mark of 21.63 set by Kara Lynn Joyce of Georgia at the 2006 NCAA Championships. Aljand's previous lifetime best was 22.02 seconds.
"I didn't know what time I went because the flags were in the way of the scoreboard," Aljand said. "I looked over at the deck at the girls on the team and they were going crazy. When I finally heard, I couldn't believe it."
Unfortunately, after an official measurement done by the Strong Surveying company at the conclusion of the day's events, the pool was found to be just over one inch short. The very same company measured the pool on Wednesday and it was measured at 75 feet ½ inch. For the pool to be regulation size, it must be no less than 75 feet exactly. Friday night's measurement was revealed to be 74 feet 10 and 7/8 inches.
This is the second time in the past year that Texas A&M has had an issue with a short pool. Earlier this summer, the Texas Senior Circuit contest provided some fast times including Olympic Trials cuts. But, the pool wound up being short.
Click here for more information on the previous short pool issue.
Special thanks to Texas A&M for contributing to this report.