FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — BYU men’s swim and dive ended its 2025 Big 12 Championships on a high note with a 400 free relay school record and two more all-conference finishers as the Cougars took fifth with 960 team points.
| 2025 Big 12 Men's Swim & Dive Championships | Final Standings | ||
| Finish | Team | Points |
| 1. | No. 4 Arizona State | 1,912 |
| 2. | Arizona | 1,301 |
| 3. | Utah | 1,153.5 |
| 4. | TCU | 1,088.5 |
| 5. | BYU | 960 |
| 6. | Cincinnati | 923 |
| 7. | West Virginia | 570 |
BYU’s accomplishments at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center featured 10 all-conference performers, including two first teamers, while also encompassing three broken school records, 19 program top 10 swims, and 59 personal best times or scores.
Eight of the 19 additions to BYU’s top 10 record board were posted by freshmen.
The Cougars finished the meet strong on Saturday night with the 400 free relay squad of Nathaniel Eliason, Payton Plumb, Tanner Nelson and Luigi Riva combining for a school-record 2:51.19. The record-breaking time helped the foursome hold sway in third with a two-second lead on fourth-place TCU. Eliason sparked the relay with a personal-best 43.11 in the leadoff leg. Plumb and Nelson followed in 42.63 and 42.93, respectively, while Riva anchored with a time of 42.52.
Nelson and Emerson Edwards secured BYU’s ninth and 10th all-conference finishes of the meet in Saturday’s 200 breast final. In the morning’s prelim, Nelson recorded the program’s second-fastest 200 breast all-time in a personal-best 1:55.09. Edwards reached the A Final with a season-best 1:55.38. The two Cougars finished in seventh and eighth, respectively, in the final to each earn All-Big 12 Second Team.
In just his first season back from two years of full-time missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico, Nelson achieved three All-Big 12 placements, including first team in the 400 individual medley.
Freshman Peter Etzold made the 200 Breast B Final and made the most of it with a personal-best 1:56.13, good for No. 5 all-time at BYU.
No BYU men’s swimmer made a more dramatic climb up a record board on Saturday than did Eliason. The freshman from Mechanicsville, Virginia began the day with the program’s ninth-fastest ever 100 free in 43.48. In the 100 free B Final, Eliason improved to 43.44. By day’s end in the 400 free relay, Eliason used his leadoff 100 free to jump to fourth all-time at 43.11.
With the 2025 Big 12 Championships complete, the Cougars now move into further post season action beginning with the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships March 10-12 in Federal Way.