COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — BYU men’s and women’s swim and dive concluded its tri-meet with Air Force and Colorado Mesa on Saturday at Cadet Natatorium.
“I’m incredibly proud of how our teams competed and persevered through challenging circumstances,” said BYU head swim and dive coach Tamber McAllister. “We had some standout individual swims, and we’re excited about the progress our athletes are making as we approach our final dual meet of the season.”
BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson also saw progress in his athletes.
"Our divers had some of their best individual dives and we showed that we're getting stronger," Routson said.
Men’s Recap
The BYU men won six more events on the way to amassing 743.5 points and finishing first in team scoring. Air Force finished second with 633 points while Colorado Mesa came in third at 566.5.
The Cougars were at their most dominant on Saturday with four swimmers finishing in the top five of the 100 free. Nathaniel Eliason won his second event of the meet with a time of 44.08 and was followed in short order by Max Kleinman (44.38), Joshua Reed (45.19) and Connor Seminavage (45.54) in second, third and fifth places, respectively.
Luigi Riva was the only swimmer on any of the three teams to clock under 20 seconds in the 50 free at the meet. Riva won the sprint with a time of 19.96 to give the Cougars 16 more points while Fletcher Madsen fought for a fourth-place tie and 10.5 more to the team tally.
Kleinman, Riva and Eliason joined Peter Etzold in clocking 3:12.66 to win the 400 medley relay. Diego Camacho Salgado then combined with Eliason, Kleinman and Riva to win the 200 free relay at 1:19.14, giving the BYU men a sweep of all four relay events in Colorado Springs this weekend.
Darwin Anderson continued his recent momentum in long distance swims with a 4:28.69 to win the 500 free. Anderson now has nine race wins under his belt this season.
BYU’s young talent not only impressed in the pool but on the diving board as well.
Marti Llop notched his second career first-place finish with a 293.25 on 1-meter. Llop’s first-place performance came over 16 points ahead of the Falcons’ runner-up Brady Nichol. Fellow freshman Bryce Roper finished sixth with a 1-meter personal-best 256.70.
Women’s Recap
The BYU women scored 612 points to finish second behind host Air Force’s 753 but in front of Colorado Mesa’s 593. The Cougars’ score of 612 came behind five more races won, including meet sweeps of the breaststroke and individual medley events by Mackenzie Miller Lung and Lucy Warnick, respectively.
Miller Lung took first in a race for the 12th time this season with a 2:13.59 in the 200 breast. Teammates Jasmine Anderson and Addison Richards followed Miller Lung to give BYU a one-two-three finish in the 200 breast.
Warnick registered another 200 IM win with a time of 2:05.02, 1.41 seconds in front of runner-up Sophia Bains of Colorado Mesa.
Victoria Schreiber and Halli Williams added two more first-place finishes for the Cougars on Saturday. Schreiber won the 500 free at 4:59.60 with teammates Richards in third and Regan Geldmacher in fourth. Williams edged Air Force’s Abby Turner by a tenth-of-a-second to take the 50 free in 23.46.
The Cougars secured three of the four relay races at Cadet Natatorium with Emma Marusakova, Miller Lung, Sarah Eliason and Williams beginning Saturday’s events with a 3:41.47 victory in the 400 medley relay.
Sophia DeBergh achieved BYU’s top women’s diving finish for the second time in as many days with a third-place score of 247.95.
Up next, BYU swim has a week off while the dive teams will return to Colorado Springs Jan. 31-Feb. 1 for the Air Force Diving Invitational.