San Luis Obispo, Calif. — The BYU men's swimming team was named the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Champions for the first time in five years, and the BYU women's team earned their second highest conference team score ever with 727.50 points on Saturday.
A neck-and-neck race in the women's 1650-yard freestyle, opened up the final day of the MSPF Championships with Addie Richards falling only two-tenths of a second behind first place with a time of 17:09.01. Later, sophomore Katie McBratney went on to break her third program record of the week in the 200-yard breaststroke. BYU also closed the gap in the 400-yard freestyle medley with a team of Katie McBratney, Rachel Oyler, Brynn Sproul and Gwen Gustafson out-touching Hawaii by one one-hundredth of second to secure the win.
Sophomore Brad Prolo broke a program record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:44.16, beating his own previous record of 1:45.55. The men's team also placed first place in the 400-yard freestyle medley at the aid of Roger Woods, Brigham Harrison, Javier Nicolas and senior captain Connor Stirling. The men's team won the 2021 MPSF Conference Championship by a landslide with 885.50 points a full 135 points ahead of the next closest team.
Overall, the Cougars broke six program records, and four meet records this week. Additionally, BYU took first place in 16 of the 40 events.
Saturday Highlights:
Katie McBratney
- 200 Yard Breaststroke - (2:11.44) - 1st - Program Record - Meet Record
Roger Woods
- 100 Yard Freestyle - (44.27) - 1st
- 200 Yard Butterfly - (1:44.16) - 1st - Program Record - Meet Record
Javier Matta
- 200 Yard Butterfly - (1:45.96) - 2nd - Fourth fastest in BYU history
Addie Richards
- 1650 Yard Freestyle - (17:09.01) - 2nd
Gwen Gustafson
- 100 Yard Freestyle - (49.94) - 2nd
W 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
- Katie McBratney, Rachel Oyler, Brynn Sproul, Gwen Gustafson - (3:20.85) - 1st
M 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
- Roger Woods, Brigham Harrison, Javier Nicolas, Connor Stirling - (2:56.48) - 1st
Up Next:
All swimmers who qualify, will head to Greensboro, North Carolina from March 24-27 to compete in the NCAA Championship.