As I was trolling for stories tonight, I stumbled upon this picture. The caption said that Alia Atkinson helped put Texas A&M’s women’s swimming on the map.

March madness doesn’t just refer to basketball. The NCAA swimming championships also occur in March. They just wrapped up, and a black swimmer rose to the surface.

Alia Atkinson is a senior at Texas A&M who specializes in breast, sprint free and IM. This year, she and Julia Wilkinson won their school’s first ever NCAA titles. Atkinson won in the 200 M breast with a time of 2:07.38

But that’s not the first time Atkinson tasted swimming glory. Last year at the NCAA finals, she became the third fastest breast stroker in NCAA history, behind Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Soni and Tara Kirk.

In 2008, Alia swam in the Olympics for her native Jamaica, finishing 26th overall in the 200 M breast, setting a Jamaican record with the time: 2:29.53. Her list of achievements goes on and on.

Who knows what the future holds for this member of the class of 2010. Hopefully we’ll see her in the 2012 Olympics.