BYU
Stephen Richards and Anna Dahl led BYU swim as the team continued a strong showing at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships Friday night at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif.
“Things went pretty well today, and I’m proud of our swimmers,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “Our men’s team is performing as we had hoped they would. We had some standout performances from the women’s team with Anna Dahl breaking the school record in the preliminaries and then breaking it again in the finals. Hopefully we can get some of the scores we are looking for tomorrow and finish out strong.”
Highlights from the day included Dahl breaking the school record and performances from Ellie Thornbrue, Ashlee Spindler, Riley Merrill, Kelly Hatanaka, David Harlan, Stephen Richards, Jake Taylor and Ryan Sorensen.
The preliminaries on Friday morning featured qualifying events for the 400-yard individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. BYU returned four swimmers to the 400 IM championship finals, two to the 100 fly, two to the 100 breaststroke and five to the 100 back championship finals.
In the women’s 400 IM, Kelly Hatanaka was the top performer for the Cougars, posting a 4:23.33 for fourth place. Riley Merrill followed close behind, earning fifth place with a 4:23.70. Stephen Richards took first in the men’s event, racing to a 3:49.21 finish.
Thornbrue was the top finisher for BYU in the women’s 100 fly, posting a 54.52 for sixth place. On the men’s side, Rainer Ng earned a sixth place-finish with a 48.29.
In the women’s 100 breaststroke, Dahl earned a 1:01.34, good enough for first place and a new school record. In the men’s event, Ryan Sorensen swam to a third-place finish, posting a 55.11.
Spindler was the top performer for the Cougars in the women’s 100 back, swimming to a seventh-place finish in 56.68. Jake Taylor won the men’s event with a time of 45.74, followed closely by Preston Jenkins who took third in 48.20.
In the last event of the day, a BYU team of Spindler, Zerlynn Tiang, Dahl and Thornbrue a 3:45.60 for sixth. Jenkins, Sorensen, Seth Russell and Kent Fellows were the top finishers on the men’s side, earning fourth with a 3:18.34.
Kevin Dreesen led BYU dive in a strong 3-meter performance at the MPSF Diving Championships Thursday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, Calif.
“The divers had an amazing day and I am so proud of how they performed,” BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson said. “We had strong events with Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp placing third and Kaela Call placing sixth. Both of their scores were personal bests. Erica Lienhard also did well in the consolation finals. The men’s team had a great performance that came down to the last dive for Kevin Dreesen to sweep the springboards. Trayton Speth was also clutch in his last dive to get his NCAA Zone cut score, so it was a great day for the team.”
In the women’s 3-meter event, Tippetts-Kottcamp earned third place, diving to a 349.25 in the preliminary round and a 329.15 in the finals. Call took sixth in the event finals with a score of 268.05.
Dreesen took home first for the second day in a row, winning the men’s 3-meter with a 378.85 in the preliminaries and a 406.25 in the final round.
The MPSF Swim and Dive Championships will wrap up Saturday, with swimming preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. PST, followed by event finals at 6 p.m. PST. Platform diving will start at noon PST at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Fans can follow the meet.
Pacific
The Tigers continued to break records in at the MPSF Championships in the third day of the four-day meet. After winning the women's 500 Free on Thursday and breaking the conference record in the men's 800 Free Relay on Wednesday, Pacific took home a 100 Fly championship and set a new school record thanks to Kenna Ramey's performance.
Ramey put up a 53.52 in the prelims before demolishing Pacific's record with a 52.57 in the finals. Ramey's time was three-tenths of a second better than the previous record, set by Shannon Catalano in 2003.
Yahav Shahaff matched Ramey's performance, breaking the school record in the 100 Breast with a 54.26. Shahaff blew that mark away in the finals with a 52.97, better than previous record holder Cameron Franke's mark by two full seconds.
In the men's 100 Fly, Stewart Harrison and Makoa Haneberg combined to take second and third, with Harrison swimming a 47.93 and Haneberg a 47.94 in the finals. Pacific also had Jared Vu in the finals, who swam a 48.26.
Whitney Jorgensen followed up a 4:20.17 second-place showing in the 400 IM with a 4:16.32 in the finals, also good for second place. Cristina Mardones took third in the finals with a 4:21.17.
Cai Hong Singh helped Pacific keep up the pace with a third place in the finals of the 100 Back. Singh swam a 55.22, the fastest time this year from a Tiger. On the men's side, Haneberg took second with a 48.15. That time was the best for a Pacific man by over a second.
In the 200 Free, Miles MacKenzie matched his strong performances in day one and two of the MPSF Championships by winning the prelims with a 1:36.53. MacKenzie took second in the finals, swimming a 1:36.82. Both times were the best this year by a Tiger by three seconds.
In the day's final event, Pacific locked up strong relay times with a second-place finish in the women's 400 Medley Relay and a win in the men's. The women's team of Singh, Mardones, Ramey, and Vaiva Gimbutyte swam a 3:40.39, just four-tenths of a second behind the lead. The men's team of Haneberg, Shahaff, Vu, and MacKenzie won the event with a 3:12.77.
After three days, Pacific's women's team is in fourth at the MPSF Championships with a score of 332.5 points. The men's team has 401 points, good for third and just five points behind second place.
