By LESLIE ARMSTRONG
The BYU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams proved that the Utah altitude wasn’t the only thing that took the breath away from their two opponents from Texas this weekend.
BYU’s swimming and diving teams hosted Rice University and Texas Christian University this weekend for their first home meets of the season.
Both the men’s and women’s teams blew Rice out of the water Friday night. The women finished with a 112-91 victory and the men with a 137-49 victory. Diving scores were not counted because Rice does not have a diving team.
The Cougars continued their weekend winning streak Saturday with a women’s score of 128.33-76.66 and a men’s score of 139-80 over TCU, including Cougar diving scores.
“We had a great weekend. Eighty to 85 percent of our swims were season bests, and we had several lifetime bests. Everybody was good up and down the line,” said women’s head coach Stan Crump.
Captain of the women’s team, Sarah McKeever, agreed with Crump adding the team had “strong swims” that resulted in seasonal bests for a number of swimmers.
McKeever also said though the weekend was tiring, the meet helped the team get ready for some very competitive upcoming meets and invitationals. The Cougars host the University of Northern Arizona Nov.22 and travel to California for the Speedo Cup Invitational in Long Beach Dec. 4-6.
Men’s head coach Tim Powers said his team also had quite a bit to be proud of this weekend.
“We had a good weekend. We swam well, and we’re improving every meet. We had some pool records which was good because we weren’t shooting for pool records,” he said.
“We couldn’t take TCU lightly so we all swam above our potential. We had personal bests from about everyone on the team, which wasn’t expected,” said men’s team captain Robby Loose.
The Cougars also secured two pool records Friday night. Arunas Savickas swam the 200 Backstroke pool record of 1:47.82 while Byron Shefchik swam a 1:59.70 for the pool record in the 200 Breaststroke.
“When I saw Arunas break that pool record (in the 200 Backstroke), I wanted in on the action,” Shefchik said
“Byron’s 200 breast was probably the best college dual meet race I’ve ever seen,” Loose said.
Both swimmers continued setting records during Saturday’s meet. Savickas swam a pool record-breaking time in the 100 Backstroke, and Shefchik broke the record for the 100 Breaststroke.
The men’s swimming team hosts a dual meet with the women’s team against the University of Northern Arizona Saturday at 10 a.m. while the men’s and women’s diving teams travel to Los Angeles for the USC Diving Invitational this weekend.
