IRVING, Texas — BYU’s Nathaniel Eliason earned his second Big 12 award in three weeks with a designation as conference swimming Men’s Co-Newcomer of the Week, the league announced on Wednesday.
| Big 12 Swim & Dive Weekly Awards | Jan. 15 | ||
| Award | Athlete | School |
| Men's Swimmer of the Week | Ilya Kharun | Arizona State |
| Men's Diver of the Week | Elias Petersen | Utah |
| Men's Co-Newcomer of the Week | Nathaniel Eliason | BYU |
| Men's Co-Newcomer of the Week | Jonathaon Adam | Arizona State |
| Women's Swimmer of the Week | Iza Adame | Arizona State |
| Women's Co-Diver of the Week | Shiyun Lai | Kansas |
| Women's Co-Diver of the Week | Holly Waxman | Utah |
| Women's Newcomer of the Week | Caroline Bentz | Arizona State |
Eliason co-led BYU men’s swimming with 18 points scored in a 161-101 defeat of UC-Santa Barbara at the Richards Building Pool on Friday. The freshman from Mechanicsville, Virginia showed-out in the sprints with wins in both 50 and 100 free.
In the 50 free, Eliason clocked 20.29 to take first place over teammate Luigi Riva and the Gauchos’ Matt Driscoll. Eliason then edged UCSB’s Austin Sparrow by two-hundredths of a second to win the 100 free at 44.62.
The Cougars’ 200 medley and 400 free relay teams also benefitted from Eliason’s performance. Eliason swam a 50 free split of 21.56 in the 200 medley and 44.70 in the 400 free relay while helping both squads take first.
Eliason was first named men’s newcomer of the week on Jan. 3 following his performance in the Cougars dual meet versus Arizona Dec. 20-21. BYU men’s and women’s swimming ranks second behind only No. 2/14 Arizona State with 10 Big 12 weekly awards achieved this season.
Eliason and the Cougars will compete once more in Provo in 2024-25 with a Senior Day dual meet showdown versus Denver on Jan. 18 at 11 a.m. MST.