PROVO, Utah — In a hard fought contest Saturday morning on senior day, BYU men's swim and dive prevailed over the UNLV Rebels with a final score of 134-109.
"It was a lot of fun facing the Rebels," said coach Shari Skabelund. "Both teams came into the competition tired, but they swam some amazing times. Our divers did a nice job, and our men came together and powered through for the victory. I'm grateful to work with these athletes, and we are thankful to the seniors for all they have done for the program throughout their careers."
In a meet that consisted of 13 events for the men, the Cougars managed to win eight of them in the 200-yard medley relay, 50-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM, 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, 1-meter dive, and 3-meter dive.
The men began the meet strong, with a team of Diego Camacho, Josue Dominguez, Javier Nicolas and Brigham Harrison winning the 200-yard medley relay, posting a time of 1:27.65. A team of Andrew Eliason, Evan VanderSluis, Brad Prolo and Abraham Zimmerman would also place third in the event with a time of 1:30.63, jumping out to an early 13-4 lead.
Despite an outright loss in the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman Darwin Anderson and Evan Sproul came in second and third with times of 9:45.45 for Anderson and 9:54.67 for Sproul to maintain the Cougars lead at 20-16.
The Cougars would squander their lead over the next couple of events, but bounced back in the 50-yard freestyle with Nicolas winning the event with a time of 20.45 to bring the score to 35-39 in favor of the Rebels.
The men went on to win the following three events, bringing the score to 87-63 for the Cougars. Over that stretch, Tama Tuitama would swim a 1:51.23 in the 200-yard IM, Prolo would swim a 1:49.04 in the 200-yard butterfly, and Nicolas went on to register his second win of the day, posting a time of 44.96 in the 100-yard freestyle.
The final win of the day for the Cougars would come in the 500-yard freestyle event, as Abe Barragan went on to swim a 4:32.35, just shy of a new personal best to bring the Cougar lead to 106-82.
The men's dive team had a successful day, winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Mickey Strauss placed first in both events, posting scores of 371.03 in the 1-meter dive, just shy of his personal best, and 347.63 in the 3-meter dive.
Chase Hindmarsh also had an impressive performance and easily received zone cut scores, placing third in the 1-meter dive and posting a score of 314.85, a new personal best, and second in the 3-meter dive, receiving a score of 346.88. Nathan Marshall also posted career bests in both dives, with a score of 270.83 in the 1-meter and 288.53 in the 3-meter.
"I am very optimistic with the momentum towards the Missouri Invitational and our first opportunity to get our zone cut scores on platform," said coach Tyce Routson. "I’m very pleased with the attention to details executed in practice and even performing new and tougher dives with accuracy so early in the season."
The Cougars will look to continue their success this season as they prepare to compete at the Mizzou Invite in Columbia, Missouri on Nov. 16-18 and the Utah Tech Invite in St. George, Utah on Nov. 17-19. Times for the events will be posted in the coming weeks, as well as information on how to watch and follow the events live.