By Robert James
With several of her teammates out of action because of injury, sophomore Nicole Burrows led the BYU women”s swimming team to a third-place finish at the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif.
Burrows placed first in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 58.5.
“I won the 100m backstroke in dual meets last year,” Burrows said. “I”ve never won it at a big meet like this before.”
The Cougars garnered 593 points, a mere 39 points behind second-place University of the Pacific.
Cal State University finished first, swimming away from the competition with a total of 852 points.
The invitational also served as a dual meet between the Cougars and Pacific.
Although Pacific finished ahead of the Cougars in the team standings, the Cougars beat the Tigers in head-to-head races in which both teams had at least one entry.
“I thought we swam really well,” Crump said. “It was an improvement on last week.”
Burrows” win was impressive as there were over 15 schools competing and over 40 swimmers in nearly every event.
Burrows also swam the anchor leg for the 400m freestyle relay team, which placed first with a time of 3:36.
Joining Burrows on the relay team were junior Monica Ferrell, senior Amanda Grant, and freshman Shannon Bloom.
The Cougars were competing without several of the team”s top swimmers who are out with injuries.
Burrows said the team knew it was losing a few points with the absence of the injured swimmers, but was still determined to do well.
“We knew going in we were missing a few points with those girls out,” Burrows said. “But we still went in and swam fast – we didn”t let it bother us.”
The Cougars, who are looking to win their fourth consecutive Mountain West Conference Championship this year, showed this weekend why the team was chosen by conference coaches as the preseason favorite for the conference championship.
With the championship portion of the season not starting until February, Crump said the team has ample time to heal and improve times.
The Cougars” next meet will be a dual meet here in Provo, Nov. 1, when they take on the University of Utah.
