PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s swim and dive will preview its 2024-25 team in its annual Blue and White Meet on Friday at 5 p.m. MDT at the Richards Building Pool.
The Blue and White Meet is a free admission event.
Read below for all the essential details on BYU men’s swim and dive in 2024-25.
Coaching Staff
Tamber McAllister took over as BYU men’s and women’s swim and dive head coach in May 2024 following the retirement of head coach and longtime assistant Shari Skabelund. McAllister has a combined 16 years’ experience as a BYU assistant coach (2005-18, 2021-24) and previously held Utah Tech’s women’s swimming head coaching position (2018-21).
In 16 years as a BYU assistant, McAllister helped coach nine All-Americans, 49 individual conference title-winners, eight team conference champions and 37 school record-breakers.
Following her hire in May, McAllister brought home three more former Cougar swimmers to serve as assistants on her staff.
Christian Hanselmann swam at BYU 2008-09 and 2011-13 before going on to assistant coaching positions at Tennessee and Eastern Michigan. Hanselmann returns to BYU after helming the Southeastern Swim Club and Hamilton Southeastern High School swim program in Fishers, Indiana (2021-24).
Melissa Springer and McAllister were teammates at BYU in 2001-02 and are back together as coaches in 2024-25. Springer cemented herself in the midwestern swimming community as a program-builder at the club, high school and junior high school levels in Michigan and Wisconsin. Most recently, Springer head coached Wausau, Wisconsin’s Woodson Y Northern Swimmers Club (2018-24) and served as Senior Chair of the Wisconsin Swimming Board (2023-24).
While not far removed from her BYU swimming career (2014-18), Emma Lythgoe has jumped up the coaching ranks from head coach at Newbury Park High School (California, 2020-24) and Pleasant Valley Swim Team, to returning to BYU as an assistant.
Another former Cougar swimmer, Hayden Palmer, enters his second season as a full-time assistant on the BYU swim staff. Head diving coach Tyce Routson moves into his 10th season at BYU in 2024-25. Routson has coached BYU divers to 11 individual conference titles and looks to extend that in the Big 12 in the season to come.
Recapping 2023-24
BYU men’s swim and dive earned its best national finish since 2016 with a 35th-place standing at the NCAA Championships after scoring seven points behind Honorable Mention All-American Jordan Tiffany. The Cougars’ school-record eight swimming entries at nationals followed a third-place finish at Big 12 Championships.
The Cougar men racked up 14 All-Big 12 honors and two individual conference titles during the 2023-24 Big 12 Championships in Morgantown, West Virginia on Feb. 27-March 2, 2024. Nine all-conference honorees return for BYU in 2024-25.
In his first season back in the pool since transferring from Tennessee, Tiffany won the Big 12 100 fly title an earned two more all-conference first team honors in the 100 free and 200 individual medley. Tiffany finished 13th and 14th at nationals in the 100 fly and 200 IM, respectively. The Pleasant Grove, Utah native enters his sophomore season with five BYU records to his name.
While in just his first season back following full-time missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Tanner Edwards added a second All-Big 12 100 fly first team finish for the Cougars along with a Second Team spot in the 100 back. Edwards’ older brother, Emerson, also returns for the Cougars after an All-Big 12 Second Team finish in the 200 breast.
Luigi Riva, Joshua Reed and Diego Camacho Salgado combined for four more all-conference finishes while each helped Tanner Edwards and Tiffany notch school records in the 200 and 400 free relays along with the 200 and 400 medley relays.
Payton Plumb (100, 200 free) and Jacob Ballard (200 fly) give the Cougars’ two more seasoned, all-conference performers in 2024-25.
School record-setter Mickey Strauss may have gone and graduated but BYU men’s diving will be led in the season to come by senior All-Big 12 Platform diver Chase Hindmarsh. Junior diver Nathan Marshall returns as well after setting six personal best scores a season ago.
Cougar diving adds three freshmen with Ezra Purcell, Marti Llop and Bryce Roper. Purcell comes to BYU after a High School All-American career at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. Llop, a native of Barcelona, Spain, won the 2024 Spanish Senior National Championship and ranked top-10 among men’s divers in the European Eight.
Returned Missionaries & Newcomers
Cougar swimming is bolstered by four returned missionaries and a handful of talented freshmen out of high school.
Tanner Nelson is back from two years of missionary service in Puebla, Mexico and will look to continue a BYU career that began with an NCAA Championship-qualifying freshman campaign in 2021-22. Nelson also set four school records while a freshman out of Bingham High School and South Jordan, Utah.
Jackson Dubreuil and Tyler Edlefsen return from missions and bring the experience of six combined All-MPSF designations. Max Kleinman comes off a mission for his freshman season with the Cougars. Kleinman earned 2021 Arizona Boy’s High School Swimmer of the Year while at Benjamin Franklin High School in Gilbert, Arizona.
Brad Binns arrives at BYU after a High School All-American campaign in the 500 free at Rockwall High School in Rockwall, Texas. Nathaniel Eliason, a freshman from Mechanicsville, Virginia, brings back-to-back Virginia 100 free titles to BYU. Peter Etzold joins the Cougars from Cape Town, South Africa where he earned three top-5 finishes at 2023 South African Short Course Championships.
Connor Seminavage won Hawaii’s 100 back and 100 fly high school titles in 2023 and 2024 before arriving at BYU. The Cougars also welcome Cal Baptist transfer and two-time All-WAC Academic honoree Asa Frisbee.
New Look Big 12 & Schedule Outlook
Big 12 men’s swim and dive saw Texas depart for the SEC but in 2025 adds Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
| Big 12 Men's Swim & Dive | |
| 2024 Final Standings | 2024-25 Conference Membership |
| 1. Texas | Arizona |
| 2. TCU | Arizona State |
| 3. BYU | BYU |
| 4. Cincinnati | Cincinnati |
| 5. West Virginia | TCU |
| Utah | |
| West Virginia | |
Arizona State secured the 2024 NCAA Men’s Swim and Dive Championship while Arizona finished ranked 22nd in the final CSCAA poll. BYU defeated Utah 181-113 in a dual meet on Feb. 9-10 and the Utes went on to finish in 36th at nationals, one spot behind the Cougars.
BYU opens the season in Grand Junction, Colorado at the Intermountain Shootout hosted by NCAA Division II powerhouse Colorado Mesa. The Cougars will then travel to face Texas A&M and TCU at a tri-meet in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M finished 2023-24 ranked 10th nationally. The Horned Frogs finished a spot ahead of BYU as 2024 Big 12 runner-up but went without points at nationals for a 50th-place finish.
UNLV won the 2024 WAC Championship and travels to Provo for a dual meet at the Richards Building Pool on Nov. 2. Texas took third at the NCAA Championships and will host BYU swimmers at the Texas Invite Nov. 20-22 in Austin while Cougar divers compete in Dallas at the SMU Invite.
Following back-to-back conference meets at Arizona (Dec. 20-21) and diving at Utah (Jan. 10-11), BYU hosts 2024 MPSF runner-up UCSB on Jan. 10 and reigning Summit League Champion Denver Jan. 18. The diving squad will also hit the road for January meets at Cal and Air Force while both swim and dive will face Air Force in a dual meet in Colorado Springs Jan. 24-25.
The annual rivalry meet between BYU and Utah is scheduled for Feb. 7-8 in Salt Lake City. After two weeks off to prepare for the postseason, the Cougars will compete for a Big 12 Championship in Federal Way, Washington Feb. 25-March 1. Qualifying athletes then have the opportunity to advance to NCAA Zone E Diving Championships, NCAA Swim and Dive Championships and the CSCAA National Invitational Championship.