By WAYNE ARBALLO
wayne@du2.byu.edu
BYU's swimming and diving teams hold their annual Blue and White scrimmage today.
This year's squads expect to perform well. Both the men's and women's teams widened their base of younger swimmers and return some of the nation's top competitors to anchor the teams.
In the mix are a handful of returning conference leaders, All-Americans and a strong base of freshman and sophomores.
'It's a young team,' men's coach Tim Powers said. 'We're reloading basically this year.'
Reloading is putting it mildly. The BYU men's squad alone recruited 12 high school All-Americans this season.
The women's squad returns All-American Sara McKeever for her final season as well as strong, disciplined core of juniors.
'We have a lot of dual meets with teams that we're pretty comparable with,' women's co-captain Jan Staley said. 'Last year we won all of them except against the University of Washington ... this year Washington is coming to us.'
The diving team returns a strong unit as well this year with coach Keith Russell looking to place at least three divers in nationals.
'I expect us to do well at the top,' Russell said. 'I'm expecting three people at least to make it to NCAAs.'
The scrimmage will give each of the squads a chance to showcase their wares as well as effectively prepare for rival University of Utah next week. The home opener is expected to be typical as the Cougars look to continue their domination one more year against the improving Utes.
The scrimmage will take place today at the Richards Building at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public.