LONG BEACH -- The No. 21 BYU men's swimming team emerged victorious after three days of intense competition at the UC Irvine Speedo Cup Invitational, in Long Beach, California, Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 5-7.
With a 1,205-point finish, the Cougars out swam the rest of the 17-team field by more than 150 points. The Pacific Tigers, who were already defeated by BYU earlier this year at the Pacific Invitational, came in second at the invitational with 1046.5 points, Cal State Bakersfield claimed third with 835.5 points, while host school UC Irvine and UC Davis rounded out the top five with 575, and 547.5 points respectively.
Brazilian native Diogo Yabe, broke the second oldest school record by winning the 100 fly with a time of 48.31. The old record had stood for nearly 20 years when Rod Strate swam to a 49.65 finish back in March of 1983. Yabe also swam to second place finishes in the 200 IM and the 200 fly where he was out touched by .15 seconds for first place.
The Cougars managed to place at least one swimmer in the top five in every event at the invitational. In the relay events, BYU placed first or second in every relay including first place finishes in the 400 free relay and the 200 free relay.
Senior Billy Betz turned in a first place performance in the 100 free with a time of 45.17, while teammate Jeff Mason finished in third. Mason also recorded second place finishes in the 50 and 200 free events.
On the women's side, the Cougars finished in ninth place with 23 women's teams participating in the event. The University of the Pacific won the women's division.
Seniors Tamber Covington and Amanda Grant had the strong finishes for the women, placing seventh and eighth respectively in the 200 breast event. Grant also raced to a tenth place finish in the 100 breaststroke event.
Both the men and women will not see action again until the first of January, when the women will again travel to California for the UCI Invitational on Jan. 4, and the men host Washington on Jan. 10 at 6:00 p.m. (MDT).