MIAMI — Diego Camacho Salgado scored a team-high 71 points as BYU men’s swimming rolled up 649 points, eight event wins and 18 personal bests on its way to victory at the FIU Sprint Invite at Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center on Wednesday.
"We had a solid meet," said BYU head coach Shari Skabelund. "Everyone found a way to stay alive in the dwindling heats. It was a perfect opportunity to give feedback to each athlete and watch them improve as the day went on."
The Cougars’ winning 649 points came ahead of runner-up South Dakota’s 309 and Mary Washington’s third-place 211. BYU swept the four 50-yard sprints and held each of the eight spots in the one-on-one finals.
Camacho Salgado took first or second in each his eight races in Miami and won the 50 back final at 22.71. The junior from Tijuana, Mexico came up just short of another win with a runner-up spot at 20.63 in the 50 free final.
Fortunately for the Cougars, it was teammate Luigi Riva who knocked Camacho Salgado from the top spot in the 50 free. Riva won in the first round and semifinal of the event before finishing off with a win at 20.55 in the final. The junior from Milan, Italy garnered 60 points for the meet after clocking 45.30 to win the 100 free as well.
Emerson Edwards and Darwin Anderson scored 52 and 51 points, respectively, for BYU.
Edwards blasted through the 50 breast preliminaries then won the final at 31.62. The junior from Columbia, South Carolina clocked as fast as 25.17 in a new 50 breast personal best on Wednesday.
Anderson competed in three of the meet’s longer events and took second in each. The sophomore from Rock Springs, Wyoming cut a combined 4.68 seconds off his entry times in the 200 free and 100 fly as he clocked 1:40.75 and 50.39, respectively.
Tanner Edwards, Jordan Tiffany and Joseph Pyon rounded out BYU’s wins in Miami.
The younger Edwards notched new personal bests in each of his final three 50 fly races before going 21.96 to win the event. Tiffany cut nearly four seconds off his entry time in the 200 free to win at 1:37.54. The team’s reigning Big 12 Swimmer of the Week then hacked over 2.5 seconds off his entry time in the 100 breast to win with 54.32. Tiffany now ranks No. 8 all-time at BYU in the 100 breast.
Pyon, a freshman from Gainesville, Florida, made the most of his home state return with a run to the 50 fly semifinal and win in the 100 fly. Pyon recorded a personal best 21.83 in the opening round of the 50 fly then a winning 50.21 in the 100 fly.
BYU men’s swimming next competes in a tri-meet on the road versus Denver and Wyoming Jan. 12-13 in Denver, Colorado. BYU men’s diving will compete Jan. 12-13 as well but at UCLA’s Bruin Diving Invitational in Los Angeles, California.