PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s swim and dive completed its first season under head coach Tamber McAllister in 2024-25, a season that featured a fifth-place finish in the Big 12 and the rise of four promising underclassmen.
The Cougars’ fifth-place finish at their second Big 12 Championships came with 960 points scored. Ten BYU athletes earned all-conference finishes with two taking first team status and eight second team. Cougar divers also qualified six NCAA Zone E Championship entries.
In total, BYU men’s swimming finished the season with four school-record performances, 63 top 10 and 119 personal best times. Twenty-five of 63 times ranked in the top 10 all-time at BYU were set by three true freshmen alone: Nathaniel Eliason, Peter Etzold and Max Kleinman.
Eliason clocked his best times of the season in each of its final two meets on his way to nine top 10 times. The Mechanicsville, Virginia native finished the season on a high note with a school-record 1:34.66 in the 200 free at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship. Eliason also takes the program’s fourth-fastest all-time 100 free into his two years as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico.
Etzold came to BYU from Cape Town, South Africa in the fall of 2024 and immediately made an impact as a freshman. With a personal-best 52.40 in the 100 breast at Big 12 Championships, Etzold earned all-conference second team and now stands second all-time at BYU in the event. Etzold tallied seven top 10 times during his first collegiate season.
Just months removed from his missionary service in Detroit, Michigan, Kleinman seamlessly returned to the pool with nine top 10 times and capped the year with the program’s fourth all-time 100 back (47.42) at Big 12’s.
Returned missionary success wasn’t limited to Kleinman with sophomore Tanner Nelson coming back from Puebla, Mexico and swimming his way to three All-Big 12 designations. Nelson earned the program’s lone all-league first team swimming finish in the 400 individual medley along with second team in the 500 free and 200 breast. The South Jordan, Utah and Bingham High School product finished his 2024-25 campaign with BYU’ second-fastest ever 200 breast (1:55.09) and a Richards Building Pool-record 1:35.59 in the 200 free.
Jordan Tiffany, Emerson Edwards and Luigi Riva garnered the Cougars’ remaining three all-Big 12 positions. Tiffany returned from injury and took Second Team All-Big 12 in the 100 fly. Edwards finished his Cougar career with a second team spot in the 200 breast and place on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America ballot. Riva’s season included three top three times at BYU and a 2.86 second improvement in the 100 fly on his way to All-Big 12 Second Team.
Senior Jacob Ballard and junior Darwin Anderson also posted among the fastest times in program history. Ballard cut 1.6 seconds for No. 2 all-time (1:44.64) in the 200 fly. Anderson put up a Richards Building-record 9:17.13 in the 1000 free then cut nearly six seconds in the event by season’s end for second all-time at BYU (9:11.91).
BYU diving was led in 2024-25 by senior Chase Hindmarsh and freshman Martí Llop. Both divers earned three entries to NCAA Zone’s and finished as zone finalists on 1-meter and platform. Hindmarsh achieved a personal best 366.15 for an All-Big 12 First Team spot on 3-meter alongside a platform second team finish.
Llop, a native of Barcelona, Spain, saved his best dives for last with personal bests on 3-meter (337.35) for all-conference second team and platform (305.5) to reach finals at zone’s.
As a team, BYU’s 2024-25 season featured wins over TCU (195-177), UNLV (173-127), UC Santa Barbara (161-101) and Denver (193-107). The dual meet highlight of the year came Feb. 7-8 in a 168-132 victory over rival Utah – the Cougars’ first in Salt Lake City since 2011. BYU diving also came out on top at both the Utah Dive Invite and Air Force Diving Invitational.