By Jarom Bergeson
The BYU men”s swimming and diving team finishes its season this weekend by competing in the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
The Cougars are sending two representatives to Georgia, junior diver Justin Wilcock and freshman diver Andy Bradley.
“We”re real excited for the championships,” Bradley said. “Hopefully we can place high and represent the school well.”
Wilcock qualified for the championships in all three diving events, the 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform. Bradley qualified in the 1 and 3-meter competitions.
“There will be some excellent competition at the NCAAs,” said BYU diving coach Keith Russell. “But we”re still hoping to get a couple All-Americans.”
Wilcock and Bradley qualified after excellent performances at the Mountain West Conference Championships in Oklahoma City, and a regional qualifying event in Palo Alto, Calif.
“The weather in California wasn”t conducive to a real good diving competition,” Russell said. “But our guys fought through it and qualified – I”m real proud of them.”
The outdoor facilities in Palo Alto allowed the weather to become a big factor in the meet, something Russell said diving coaches do not want to happen again.
“Diving indoors obviously creates optimal conditions for the athletes,” he said. “Almost all the coaches I talked to will be campaigning to have the qualifying meets indoors in the future.”
Although the only BYU representatives at the NCAA Championships are divers, many of the swimmers as well as the divers have been selected to the recently announced All-Mountain West Conference team.
The Cougars led the conference with 14 first-team honorees. UNLV was second with 12, and no other team had more than five.
BYU also took home three of the four men”s individual conference honors with Wilcock repeating as Diver of the Year, Russell being named Diving Coach of the Year, and Tim Powers being named Swimming Coach of the Year.
“This is a very deep team,” Powers said. “We”ve got a lot of talented guys who love to compete, and I think the results reflect that.”
In all, five Cougar divers, seven individual swimmers, and four relay teams were named to the team.
