PROVO, Utah — BYU women’s swimming held off Denver in a thrilling 158-142 dual meet win over the Pioneers on Senior Day at the Richards Building Pool on Saturday.
“We knew it was going to be a close meet,” said BYU head swim and dive coach Tamber McAllister. “Denver has a fantastic team, so it was all going to depend on who showed up today.”
The Cougars clung to a 135-129 lead heading into the final two events of the day and answered the bell with wins in both 200 individual medley and 400 free relay.
Lucy Warnick edged Denver’s Mina Solaker by 0.11 seconds to win the 200 IM and preserve the Cougars’ narrow lead with nine more points. BYU then put the meet away with it’s “A” and “B” relay squads finishing first and third, respectively. Haylee Tiffany, Emma Marusakova, Lily Flint and Halli Williams combined to take the “A” squad to a winning time of 3:21.52.
“It’s been a while since our women had a meet that came down to the last relay, so I challenged the girls to step it up and they did a fantastic job,” McAllister said.
The BYU women book-ended the day with relay success as the 200 medley relay “A” squad of Marusakova, Mackenzie Miller Lung, Sarah Eliason and Williams opened the meet with a pool-record 1:39.56.
Miller Lung and Williams led the Cougars with 18 points a-piece on Saturday.
Miller Lung racked up two more breaststroke victories with a sweep of both 100 and 200-yard races. At a personal-best 1:00.28 in the 100 breast, Miller Lung broke her own pool record and drew within 0.28 seconds of toppling Katie McBratney’s school record set in 2021. With two wins on Saturday, Miller Lung now has 10 for the season.
Williams took care of the sprints for the Cougars with a 22.93 to win the 50 free and 50.90 to take the 100.
Marusakova and Eliason each won races to give BYU seven for the day. Marusakova clocked a season-best 54.79 to win the 100 back while Eliason went 54.72 to take the 100 fly. Between Eliason and Warnick, the Cougars have two freshmen with a combined 10 race victories this season.
With BYU and Denver’s dive teams both competing at the Cal Diving Invitational this weekend, the compiled Cougar-Pioneer diving scores contributed to the dual meet final in Provo as well.
Alexia Jackson Hansen and Brooklyn Larson Clouse went one-two on 1-meter and were the only divers between the two teams to surpass 250 points. Jackson Hansen and Sophia DeBergh controlled the top two spots in the 3-meter event to further bolster BYU’s team score. Jackson Hansen scored nearly 50 more points than the Pioneers’ high scorer with a final of 270.95.
Cougar swim and dive next takes to the road for a dual meet at Air Force Jan. 24-25 at Cadet Natatorium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.