LYNCHBURG, Va. – BYU swim and dive finished with 27 top-three placements on the final day of the Liberty Invite on Saturday morning.
“I’m proud of the team spirit and unity we had today,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “I’m really proud of the way the women raced and fought to bring their very best today.”
The men snatched the first win of the day in the 4x100 medley relay with Kunmi Ogunfeibo, Josue Dominguez, Matt Abernethy and Tama Tuitama finishing five seconds ahead of second place Gardner-Webb.
Tuitama went on to finish first in the 200-yard backstroke and 400-yard IM, taking three wins overall. Dominguez also continued to place strong coming in first in the 200-yard breaststroke and recording a personal best time of 2:05.99.
Payton Sorenson continued to bring in wins for BYU, placing first in the men’s 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.53. Connor Stirling secured second place, recording a time of 46.20. Freshman swimmers Gwen Gustafson and Brynn Sproul kept the win streak going by taking first in their individual events. Gustafson finished first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.58 while Sproul earned a winning time of 1:58.94 in the 200-yard backstroke.
Javier Matta, Jared Shaw, Stirling and Sorenson came together in the 4x100 freestyle relay to take first to finish the meet for the men. A team of Tiare Coker, Brenna Dickson, Katie Smith and Gustafson were able to place second in the 4x100 freestyle relay to finish off for the women.
The divers dominated in the second day of events. Nathan Gonzales placed first in the men’s 3-meter and received another zone cut score at 321.75. Kimble Mahler and Morgan Cooper took first and second in the 3-meter, respectively. For the women, Kennedy Cribbs placed first in the 1-meter with a score of 268.40, earning her first zone cut of the season.
Over the two-day invite, the men’s team defeated Old Dominion, 245.00 to 107.00, Mount Saint Mary’s, 293.50 to 49.50, and Gardner-Webb, 271.00 to 75.00. The women’s team defeated Old Dominion, 236.50 to 113.50, and Gardner-Webb, 248.00 to 96.00, but lost to Liberty, 232.00 to 118.00.
The Cougars will next travel to Las Vegas for the UNLV Invite. The invite will begin at 11 a.m. PDT on Saturday, November 3, at Buchanan Natatorium.