The Halloween weekend proved eventful for the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams as they faced off against UNLV on Friday night and then Arizona State on Saturday morning at the Richards Building pool.

The BYU women’s team beat UNLV 213-87. Highlights included Natasha Menenzes breaking two pool records, the women taking the top three places in the 100-yard fly and taking the top five places in the 3-yard dive.

Menezes broke the 500-yard freestyle BYU pool record. Melanie Rile-Menezes, Natasha’s mother and a spectator at the meet, previously held the record, which had stood for 27 years. The new record time is 4:55.46, which beat Rile-Menezes’ time of 4:56.87.

Menezes also took first in the 1000-yard free, followed in second place by teammate Amy Xu.
The BYU men’s team lost to UNLV, with the final score 171-122. The men struggled to shine, but there were a few bright spots as John Kendrick won first place in the 200-yard freestyle.

Kendrick, who was behind for most of the race, was able to come from behind and win by .12 seconds.

The men were able to excel at diving. Travis Day won the 3-yard competition with a score of 308.10. Ron Morris came in second with 303.30 points. Sam Hatch came in third with 298.88 points.

In the 1-yard dive, Morris (314.25) led the way, followed by Hatch (283.65) and Day (271.05)
The following day, both the men’s and women’s teams were able to drown Arizona State. The men won with a final score of 154-88 and the women came out on top with a final score of 151-92.

The men came in first in the 200-yard medley relay with a team consisting of Jeff Ferrell, Vytenis Slenys, Brent Stevenson and Andrew Merrell. Merrell took first place in the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 21.53. Stevenson took first place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:56.49.

John Kendrick was able to secure a first-place victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 9:50.05.

The men swept the top four positions in the 200-yard breaststroke. Slenys led with a time of 2:10.19. He was followed by David Scott (2:12.33), Justin Morin (2:13.09) and Hayden Palmer (2:17.12).

Brandon Watson led the men’s diving team. Watson took first place in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.

“Brandon has picked up where he left off before his mission,” said head coach Tim Powers in a statement.

The women’s team also fared well on Saturday, led by Natasha Menezes, who won the 100-yard freestyle (10:17.07), the 500-yard freestyle (5:04.31) and anchored the 400-yard relay team that finished in first place (3:27.64).

“This weekend was a great experience for us,” said Powers. “I thought we swam well. We want to race strong whether we are ahead or not.”