FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — BYU men’s swim and dive climbed two spots in the team standings with three all-conference performances, a school record-breaking swim and 11 personal bests at Big 12 Swim and Dive Championships on Thursday.
Tanner Nelson came up one spot short of All-Big 12 First Team in Wednesday’s 500 free final but would not be denied first team status on Thursday in the 400 individual medley. Nelson opened the day with a runner-up 3:45.52 in the prelim, 0.31 behind Cincinnati’s Kyle Bumgardner and 0.63 ahead of No. 4 Arizona State’s Daniel Matheson.
In the A final, Nelson fell to fourth place but held off the Bearcats’ Bumgardner for the first team designation with a time of 3:45.59.
BYU’s sprints duo of Jordan Tiffany and Luigi Riva added two more all-conference second team finishes in the 100 fly. In just his second meet back from injury, Tiffany improved his entry time by over three-fourths of a second over the course of the day and ended on a 45.52 for fifth in the A final. Tiffany’s All-Big 12 Second Team finish marks his fourth all-conference honor in two seasons at BYU.
Riva clocked the program’s second fastest ever 100 fly time at 46.25 to take eighth in the prelim and secure a spot in the A final. The senior from Milan, Italy finished the day in eighth at 46.27, earning his ninth career all-conference honor and first in the 100 fly.
Jacob Ballard and Max Kleinman also advanced in the 100 fly with Ballard doing so on a prelim time of 47.15, good for eighth all-time at BYU.
While coming up short of an all-conference honor, Nathaniel Eliason made the most of his spot in the 200 free final with a school-record 1:34.66. BYU’s previous record of 1:35.00, set by Preston Jenkins, had stood since 2018. Eliason finished ninth in the 200 free prelim with a personal-best 1:35.27, good for third on the program record board. That placement proved short-lived with Eliason cutting another 0.61 seconds for the sub-1:35.00 school record to take ninth in the final.
Payton Plumb nearly mirrored Eliason with an 11th-place finish in the prelim at 1:35.33 followed by the program’s second-fastest time at 1:34.78 in the final.
Max Kleinman, Peter Etzold, Riva and Eliason finished the day taking fourth in the 400 medley relay in 3:08.84. Kleinman led the group in a nearly two second improvement on their entry time with a leadoff 100 back in a personal-best 47.76.
Chase Hindmarsh and Marti Llop advanced to the 1-meter dive B final on Thursday. Hindmarsh improved his score by nearly 52 points to finish 10th while Llop came in 14th at 268.05.
With 566 points, the Cougars hold a narrow 6.5 point lead over TCU. BYU will look to widen its lead as events continue on Friday at 10 a.m. PST on ESPN+ with the 200 fly prelim.