COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — BYU men’s and women’s swim and dive opened its tri-meet versus Air Force and Colorado Mesa with a combined 11 event wins on Friday at Cadet Natatorium.
Men’s Recap
BYU men’s swim and dive holds a 40-point lead on second-place Air Force after tallying 354 points with six wins on Friday.
Tanner Nelson racked up his 11th race victory of the season with a 16:04.79 in the 1650 free. Nelson’s first-place finish came nearly eight seconds ahead of the Falcons’ runner-up Tucker Rice.
Freshmen Nathaniel Eliason, Peter Etzold and Max Kleinman each added individual wins of their own, on the way to 354 team points. Eliason took the 200 free at 1:36.91 while Kleinman notched his eighth win of the season at 48.12 in the 100 back. Etzold, the reigning Big 12 Men’s Newcomer of the Week, earned his third race win in two meets with a 54.31 in the 100 breast.
The trio of Cougar freshmen combined with Luigi Riva to win the 200 medley relay at 1:27.26. Eliason and Kleinman returned in the 400 free relay and, along with Riva and Payton Plumb, won with a time of 2:55.82.
Marti Llop continued his promising freshman season with a runner-up spot in the 3-meter competition at 301.90.
Women’s Recap
BYU women’s swim and dive won five events to score 263 points on day one in Colorado Springs.
The Cougars book-ended the day with first-place finishes in both 200 medley and 400 free relays. The “A” squad of Emma Marusakova, Mackenzie Miller Lung, Sarah Eliason and Halli Williams combined for a 1:41.47 to win the 200 medley. Eliason and Williams returned at day’s end and teamed up with Haylee Tiffany and Kara Martinson for a winning 3:24.54 in the 400 free relay.
Miller Lung, Lucy Warnick and Haylee Tiffany each added individual event wins of their own. Miller Lung won her 11th race of the season with a 1:01.14 in the 100 breast. Tiffany clocked 1:50.82 to win the 200 free with teammate Victoria Schreiber right behind in second. Warnick and Addison Richards finished within a hundredth-of-a-second of each other at first and second, respectively, in the 400 individual medley.
BYU women’s dive’s top finisher of the day was Sophia DeBergh’s sixth-place score of 228.30 on 1-meter.
BYU swim and dive resumes its meet with the Falcons and Mavericks on Saturday at 11 a.m. MST. Fans can watch a live stream of the meet here.