LONG BEACH -- After the first day at the Anteater Shootout hosted by UC Irvine, the men’s and women’s teams were able to drop time and swim against top-notch competition.
“We were very deep and dominating with our women’s team,” BYU head coach Tim Powers said. “Our men had some overall good times, but UNLV just swam better.”
The meet was scored as many different dual meets, causing the BYU men to finish on top of UC Davis (78-54) and Cal State Northridge (114-16), while falling to in-conference UNLV (91-41). While the men tallied a few first place finishes, the depth of UNLV caused the Running Rebels to come out on top.
The Cougar women beat UC Davis (106-36), UNLV (83-39), Cal State Northridge (113-11) and the University of San Diego (113-12).
Sophomore standout Rachel Grant won the 400 IM with a time of 4:21.38, only three seconds off the Mountain West Conference record. Grant also won the 100 fly and 200 fly, touching the wall with times of 56.78 and 2:01.53, respectively.
Natasha Menezes led the distance team, winning the 200 free, 500 free and 1650 free with times of 1:50.92, 4:57.07 and 17:02.37, respectively.
BYU’s all-time fastest female swimmer, Aleesha Miller won the 50 free with a time of 23.77, with teammate Kirsty Ferrell coming in a close second at 24.11. Senior Leilani Roberts led the Cougars in the 100 free, placing first with a time of 51.91 and Miller coming in second (52.32).
The Cougars’ only returning All-American, Tawni Jones swept the diving events, winning the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 265.20, 11.15 points ahead of second-place BYU diver, Ava Jackman (254.05). On the 3-meter board, Jones placed first (268.90) with teammate, Jackman, close behind in second place (260.80).
For the women’s relays, the Cougars won the 200 medley relay to start off the meet with a time of 1:46.60. In the 200 free relay, BYU out-touched UNLV with a time of 1:35.78.
Leading the men was senior Jacoby Jacobsen who won both the 100 and 200 backstroke events with times of 51.78 and 1:51.76, respectively.
Sophomore Ron Morris and freshman Sam Hatch went 1-2 in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving competitions. Morris achieved scores of 268.15 on the 1-meter board and 269.50 on the 3-meter. Hatch tallied scores of 254.05 and 261.80 on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, respectively.
“We have a lot of kids that are back from missions or young kids that haven’t swam at the Division I level and they’re just not quite there yet,” Powers said.
The team will be back in the pool Saturday morning to finish off the meet. “It’s not going to get any easier tomorrow,” said Powers.
The women's teams that will compete in pool one Saturday are Stanford, BYU, UC Davis, UNLV, Hawaii and Pepperdine. San Diego State will join that pool Saturday as well to swim against BYU and UNLV. UC Irvine, CSUN, Cal Poly, San Diego and Idaho in the other pool. For the men, Air Force, Hawaii, UNLV and BYU will swim in pool one with UCI, CSUN, Cal Poly and UC Davis in the other pool.
Check back here on www.byucougars.com/swimming_diving/ for updates.