Swimming
Thresher, a freshman from Chico, California, touched the wall in the 100 backstroke in 52.97 seconds to break the 12 year old Cougar record by 0.23 seconds in her first collegiate race, becoming the first BYU women’s swim athlete to break 53 seconds in the event in history. Thresher notably won the 100 yard race by nearly four full seconds with Colorado Mesa’s Taylar Hooton finishing second in 56.67 seconds.
30 minutes later Sarah Eliason, a junior out of Rockville, Maryland, set the BYU record in the 100 Individual Medley, a feat that hasn’t been done since 2017. The third year finished the race in 56.91 seconds breaking the record by 0.38 seconds and earning her the title as the first BYU women’s swim athlete to ever break 57 seconds in the event.
On top of the records, BYU racked up 13 total first place finishes at the meet with both men’s and women’s 400 medley relay A squads opening the meet with wins finishing in 3:12.70 and 3:39.68 respectively. The men’s relay team featured Will Bonnett, Jacob Aina, Josh Reed and Max Kleinman with the women’s relay consisting of Thresher, Eliason, Tatum Cooley and Lucy Warnick.
Haylee Tiffany kicked off the first individual win of the day for BYU with a 1:50.68 performance in the 200 freestyle that was followed by Warnick winning the 200 Individual Medley in 2:03.79.
Tanner Nelson won the first event for the men’s team minutes later with a 1:47.86 finish in the 200 Individual Medley. Kleinman finished less than two seconds behind him in 1:49.56 to claim second place.
Twenty minutes later Tanner Edwards won the seventh event of the night for BYU with a 48.84 second showing in the 100 Backstroke just before Cooley claimed victory in the 50 Freestyle on the women’s side in 23.36 seconds.
The Cougars continued their dominance with Peter Etzold taking first in the 100 Breaststroke touching the wall in 53.80 seconds. The women’s 200 Freestyle relay squad consisting of Ana Loveridge, Sophie Scoville, Eliason and Cooley then claimed first in 1:31.92.
Melissa Turley claimed the final victory on the day for the Cougars in the 1,000 Freestyle finishing in 10:22.56, nearly seven seconds faster than Colorado Mesa’s Eveline Grannis who took second.
Diving
Sophomore Brooklyn Goeckeritz recorded a score of 223.45 in the 3-meter contest to take fifth overall while Kentucky transfer Rock Sweet led the men’s team with 226.80 points and taking seventh in the 1-meter.
The Cougars ended the first day of competition in Grand Junction with both teams holding second place behind Colorado Mesa with the men's team scoring 176 points and women 173.50 points.
Up Next
BYU finishes out competition at the Intermountain Shootout at Colorado Mesa University tomorrow Saturday, October 3 starting at 10:00 a.m. MDT with streaming on RMAC network and live stats available on the Meet Mobile app.
