BYU
In its first official meet of the season, BYU swim and dive showed a strong outing on the first day of the Colorado Mesa Invite at the El Pomar Natatorium Friday night.
“Ellie Thornbrue and Kelly Hatanaka did a great job in their events tonight, as did Jake Taylor and Preston Jenkins,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “As far as tomorrow goes, we want to be a little cleaner on our turns and relay exchanges. Overall, we had good times but we have some technical things that we need to be a little cleaner on.”
BYU took the first event of the night in the women’s 200-yard relay as a team of Ashlee Spindler, Anna Dahl, Emily To’o and Alexandria Sorensen finished with a time of 1:47.78. In the men’s event, the team of Jake Taylor, Stephen Richards, Rainer Ng and Payton Sorenson took second place for the Cougars with a 1:30.56 finish.
The BYU women swept the 200 free event, with Ellie Thornbrue taking first with a time of 1:54.36, Lauren Shaw Taylor taking second with a time of 1:54.60 and Brenna Dickson taking third with a 1:54.98 finish. Jake Taylor placed first in the men’s event, finishing in 1:45.15, while Preston Jenkins took second with a finishing time of 1:42.82.
Freshman Kelly Hatanaka got her first win of the night in the women’s 400 individual medley with a 4:31.65 finish. Ellie Thornbrue took second in the event with a 4:33.48 finish and Lillian Moore placed third, finishing in 4:36.71. On the men’s side of the event, Stephen Richards took second place with a 4:04.80 finish, while Luis Ventura took third, finishing in 4:07.52.
In the men’s 100 backstroke event, Taylor placed first with a 48.31 finish, which is currently the fourth-ranked time in the nation. Ng took third in the event with a 50.33 finish.
Katie Smith took first for BYU in the women’s 50 butterfly event, finishing in 25.70. To’o finished a close second with a time of 26.19. In the men’s event, Chad Sorensen finished with a time of 23.33, good enough to earn second place.
In the final event of the night, Vanessa Moffatt got the first place finish for the Cougars in the 1650 free, finishing in 17:49.26. Ventura took first for the men, finishing in 16:17.67.
“I like that we are getting back into the swing of things and throwing our harder dives,” BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson said. “The whole team stuck to the game plan of keeping a routine and a competitive focus. If we can pay attention to corrections and executing what we are working on, we will have a successful meet”
In the women’s one-meter dive event, Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp placed third with a score of 243.20. Shelby Johnson took fifth place for the Cougars with a 206.65 score.
In the men’s three-meter dive, Kevin Dreesen and Matt Denkers finished first and second. Dreesen tallied a 327.75 score, while Denkers finished just behind at 326.10
The Colorado Mesa Invite will continue tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. MDT.
Colorado State
Four members of the Colorado State Rams swimming and diving squad picked up wins during the first day of the Intermountain Shootout hosted by Colorado Mesa University on Friday evening.
BYU leads as a team with CSU within striking distance in second. The Intermountain Shootout will conclude after 12 events are completed tomorrow.
Junior Jenna Beaury provided the first win for the Rams on Friday, taking first in the 100 Breaststroke. Beaury beat her seed time by nearly two seconds, clocking in at 1:05.98. Cristina Bassani placed third in the event. Shortly after, sophomore Katie Kicklighter won the 50 Freestyle with a time of 23.90. Karin Roh and Carmen Mand took fourth and fifth in the event, respectively.
Senior Jess Shepard then won the 100 Backstroke with a time of 56.99, more than 1.5 seconds faster than the runner-up from BYU. Ariana Milone provided CSU’s last win of the day, winning the 1-Meter dive with a score of 255.60.
Sophomore Hailey Spratte recorded a runner-up result in the 1650 Freestyle, finishing in 17:53.09. Mackenzie Halligan, Ida Donohue and Madison Evans took positions 3-5 in the event.
The day started tough for the Rams, as their 200 Medley Relay A team was disqualified. With BYU’s A and B teams taking the top two finishes, the Rams began the day with a large deficit.
IN THEIR WORDS…
“We got gut-punched. We battled back and started to climb back, and we are within striking distance, but it will take a much better day from everyone tomorrow to win it.” – Head Coach Christopher Woodard
“She’s just good. She’s good and she’s experienced and she’s tough. She was a little bit off at times today, but she was still good for us and good enough to win.” – Diving coach Kevin Witt on senior Ariana Milone’s performance
STAT OF THE GAME…
1:05.98 – Jenna Beaury beat her seed time by nearly two seconds to win the 100 Breaststroke on Friday.
NEXT UP:
CSU, BYU and Colorado Mesa will continue at the Intermountain Shootout tomorrow with 12 more events to finish the meet.
