PROVO, Utah — Tanner Nelson tallied 27 points on three event wins as BYU men’s swim and dive raced by UNLV 173-127 on Saturday afternoon at the Richards Building Pool.
“I am so proud of our athletes today and the aggressive way that they raced,” said BYU head swim and dive coach Tamber McAllister. “This was our last chance to fine tune race strategies before our mid-season competition and we had so many incoming freshmen and returned missionaries step up big time.”
The Cougars combined for 11 event wins, four new school top-10 times and three new pool records. Following Nelson in the Cougars’ point scoring was Darwin Anderson and Max Kleinman with 18 a-piece, Joshua Reed’s 17 and 12 from both Luigi Riva and Jacob Ballard.
Nelson started the day strong as he broke his own pool record and notched a new collegiate personal best with a 1:36.18 in the 200 free. In the 200 back, Nelson clocked 1:47.26 to win and surpass Gary Tann (2001) for No. 10 all-time at BYU. Nelson’s final individual victory of the meet came in a 1:47.36 200 individual medley performance. To close the day, Nelson anchored the BYU 400 free relay squad to a 2:56.39 win. Diego Camacho Salgado, Reed and Riva swam in spots one through three.
Just three meets into his first season back from a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nelson has already tallied seven individual event wins.
Kleinman, another recently returned missionary, continued his strong start to the season with wins in the 100 back and 100 fly. The freshman from Gilbert, Arizona clocked 47.78 in the 100 back, good for No. 6 all-time at BYU. Kleinman then went 47.04 to win the 100 fly and surpass Jorge Azevedo (2008) for the program’s fifth-fastest 100 fly time. Despite his relay squad finishing second, Kleinman posted a 100 free pool record 43.74 in the 400 free relay leadoff.
Anderson joined Nelson and Kleinman as the Cougars’ third swimmer with multiple individual wins on Saturday. The junior from Rock Springs, Wyoming dominated the distance events with a 9:25.68 win in the 1000 free and 4:32.54 in the 500. Anderson’s 9:25.68 repealed the previous pool record of 9:28.70 set by Utah’s Tyler Klawiter in 2020.
Reed tallied 17 points with a first-place finish in the 100 free along with runner-up spots in the 200 and 50 free. The sophomore sprinter clocked 44.41 in the 100, then 1:37.76 in the 200 and 20.48 for second in the 50.
Riva recorded the Cougars’ 10th individual win as he clocked 20.26 in the 50 free. Nathaniel Eliason finished third at 20.51 to give BYU a sweep of the top three spots in the race.
Ballard went 1:46.09 to win the 200 fly and jump to No. 4 all-time at BYU.
Chase Hindmarsh and Martí Llop were the Cougars’ top finishers in both men’s diving events. Hindmarsh took second on 1-meter at 327.60 while Llop scored 300.45 and finished fourth. The duo finished third and fourth on 3-meter with scores of 303.53 and 281.85, respectively.
“I saw a lot of improvement from the whole team today,” said BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson. “Some of our athletes are healthy again, and that gave us added enthusiasm and energy as a team.”
After two weeks off, BYU women’s swimming is back in action at the Texas Invite in Austin, Texas Nov. 20-22. While the swimmers are in Austin, BYU women’s divers will compete at the SMU Invite in Dallas, Texas Nov. 21-23.