Women's swimming opens Texas Invitational

BYU women’s swimming opened competition at the Texas Invitational, totaling 18 season-best and 12 collegiate-best times at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Wednesday.

BYU swimmer Lucy Warnick swims breaststrokeBYU swimmer Lucy Warnick swims breaststroke

AUSTIN, Texas — BYU women’s swimming opened competition at the Texas Invitational, totaling 18 season-best and 12 collegiate-best times at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Wednesday.

Lucy Warnick cut a combined 1.43 seconds off her previous best to go 2:01.32 and finish 28th in the 200 individual medley. Warnick now ranks fifth-fastest in the event in BYU history as she surpasses Sarah McKeever’s best set in 1997.

Victoria Schreiber advanced to the 500 free final after opening the meet with an eight-second improvement for the season at 4:52.15. Schreiber’s time on Wednesday, also improved her previous career-best by nearly a second and pushed her to eighth all-time at BYU.

The Cougars’ 400 medley relay team entered the meet ranked 34th nationally and shaved 3.73 seconds to notch a season-best 3:40.19 and finish 13th. Katya Hulse, Mackenzie Miller Lung, Sarah Eliason and Halli Williams combined on the relay to bring the squad within 0.59 seconds off the school record set in 2011. Hulse led off with a personal-best 55.20, ranking her 10th all-time at BYU in the 100 back.

Eliason and Williams book-ended the 200 free relay along with Lily Flint and Tahis Ibanez, as the squad took 12th at 1:32.40. Entering the week, the foursome’s new time would rank top-40 nationally.

Williams, Eliason, Flint and Ibanez also advanced to the 50 free final with each recording a season-best time in either the preliminary heats or final.

BYU women’s swimming returns for day two at the Texas Invitational on Thursday with the 200 medley relay beginning at 10 a.m. CST.