PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s swimmers Luigi Riva and Jacob Ballard each posted top-3 all-time performances in program history on Friday as the Cougars concluded competition at the Texas Invitational.
DIVING UPDATE NOV. 23
BYU men's diving concluded the SMU Invite with platform competition on Saturday. All four Cougar divers finished in the top-seven with Chase Hindmarsh (308.40), Martí Llop (302.60) and Ezra Purcell (230.70) in third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Bryce Roper finished seventh at 216.10.
Llop's 302.60 was good for a platform personal-best and jumps him into the top-25 nationally on plaftorm scoring over Bryn James of TCU. The BYU men now boast two top-25 ranked platform divers with Llop and Hindmarsh (No. 14).
Swimming Recap | Texas Invitational | Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center | Austin, Texas
Riva began the day cutting 0.62 seconds for a personal-best 43-flat in the 100 free. This vaulted the senior from Milan, Italy to No. 3 all-time at BYU and gave him a top-5 finish in the 100 free preliminary round.
After taking eighth in the 100 free final at 43.06, Riva finished the day strong with a new personal-best 42.98 as he led off the 400 free relay squad.
Ballard swam BYU’s second-fastest ever 200 fly with a time of 1:45.78 in the prelim. The senior from Sandpoint, Idaho surpassed assistant coach Hayden Palmer for No. 2 position in program history.
Jackson Dubreuil followed Ballard at 1:47.20 in the 200 fly prelim, then improved to 1:46.60 in the final. Dubreuil now ranks sixth all-time for the Cougars.
Tanner Nelson and Peter Etzold added two more program top-10 times in 200 breast races on Friday. Nelson clocked a personal-best 1:56.10 for fourth at BYU, while Etzold improved by 0.43 seconds in the final for ninth all-time.
Diego Camacho Salgado finished the day No. 4 in program history in the 200 back after jumping from 1:45.96 in the prelim to 1:44.31 in the final.
In total, the Cougars posted 26 season-best times on Friday, among which were 20 collegiate-best.
Diving Recap | SMU Invite | Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center | Dallas, Texas
The Cougars qualified three of their four men’s divers for the 1-meter final on Friday with Chase Hindmarsh, Marti Llop and Ezra Purcell advancing.
Hindmarsh finished fifth in the prelim at 303.90, then fourth in the final at 295.95. Llop was the Cougars’ top finisher overall with a third-place spot at day’s end following a final round score of 303.75. Purcell notched a personal-best 274.15 to take eighth in the final.
BYU men’s diving returns for its final day in Dallas at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday.