The Cougars earned a combined twelve top-10 finishes in competition this weekend.The swimmers earned eight in Las Vegas at the UNLV Invite and the divers earned four in Arizona at the Wildcat Diving Invite.
Diving
"I felt we could have done better but we did a good job and really learned a lot," head diving coach Keith Russell said. "I think that now we have a chance to make some big improvements."
On Friday, junior Matt Hopper represented the Cougars in the men's 1-meter, taking fourth place with a score of 291.55. The top-three placers in the event represented Arizona (first and third) and USC (second).
Nicholas Suder dove a 337.35 to take fourth place in the men's 3-meter. At this competition, Suder completed a new dive that Russell believes is a big move and great improvement for the team. Teammate Bryce Farabee followed close behind, grabbing sixth place in the same event with a score of 320.50. Representing the BYU women's team, senior Raleigh WilliamsTaylor placed in the top 10 in the women's 1-meter.
Swimming
The women’s swimmers placed seventh in the invitational with 200 points while the men took sixth with 259 points. Cal was victorious among the women’s teams and Stanford for the men’s.
On Friday Stott Bushnell earned the first top-10 finish for BYU in the men’s 200 free, touching the wall in 1:41.27.
The team of Angela Bennion, Jessica Ampuero, Allison McCormick and Valerie McMullan took fifth place in the women’s 800 free relay with a time of 7:28:26.
Camille Okelberry came out strong Saturday morning and earned fifth in the women’s 1650 free with a time of 17:20.16. Her teammates Alexandra Dodds and Cheyenne McLaws followed close behind in sixth (17:26.56) and seventh place (18:10.32), respectively. Cougar Dallin Johnson finished top-10 in the men’s 1650 free with a time of 16:39.02 in the event.
Freshman Riley Buer swam among the top 10 in the women’s 200 breast in her first college invitational. She completed the event in 2:21.59.
Bennion, McCormick, McMullan and Dodds competed as a team to take sixth in the women’s 400 relay in a time of 3.28.46.
The Cougars will take another two-week break before heading to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Invite. The meet will be held Dec. 5-7 at the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.