OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Cougar men and women lead the way after the first night of competition at the Mountain West Conference Championships in Oklahoma City. The men ended the evening with 122 points and the women left the pools with 108 points on the board.
BYU garnered points from its divers who all helped the Cougars to first place. Senior Scott Randall was fourth after the pre-lims for the men in the 1-meter springboard. Randall ended the evening on top in his final championships, edging out Utah's Sterling Richards who was first in the conference going into the weekend.
The men also scored points off the dives of Ron Morris, Jeremiah Chai and Bryce Engstrom. The threesome ended the competition in 6th, 9th and 11th place.
BYU also scored big from the dives of four Cougar women. Freshman Angela Nelson and junior Aubrey Low led the way with a third and fourth place finish for the women on the 1-meter springboard. The final two eligible divers for the Cougars also scored points for the team with freshmen Kristin Pitt in sixth and Kimberly Rusk in 15th.
The men had stronger showings in the other events of the evening: the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay. The men came in second in the 200 medley relay with an NCAA B qualifying and BYU all-time best time of 1:28.57.
The men also came in first in the 800 free relay with another NCAA B qualifying time of 6:33.06. The men have placed first in the event the last five of six years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005).
The women swam to a fifth place finish in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:45.25 and a second place finish in the 800 free relay 7:28.03.
The championships will continue Thursday through Saturday with pre-lims for each event in the morning and finals being swam in the evening.