This weekend at the MPSF Championship meet, the men's swim and dive team team placed third and the women's team placed second.
Both teams are waiting to hear which of its athletes will qualify for NCAA nationals and should find out within the next week. The MPSF Championship swim meet was four days long and took place in Los Angeles, Calif. The MPSF Championship dive meet was in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy.
Highlights from the men's team included the 400 free relay, where the BYU school record and the MPSF championship meet record were broken. The event was swam by Payton Sorenson, Garret Beaman, Preston Jenkins and Brent Murray. Nicholas Suder placed third in the platform dive, won the 1m dive and won the 3m dive. Hayden Palmer also broke the BYU record by five seconds in the 400 IM. Jenkins also placed third in the 100m backstroke and second in the 200m back stroke.
A member of the BYU swim team races in the 100 yard breaststroke during a recent meet in the Richards Building. (Photo by Universe Photographer)
'Both were close races; I knew they were going to be, there was some good competition,' Jenkins said regarding the 200 and 100 backstroke. 'In both races me and (the winner) were within 3/10 of a second. In the 200 IM I got to swim next to my brother, who swims at the Air Force Academy and it is his senior year.'
On the women's side, Hailey Campbell took first place in both the 100m and 200m backstroke. Campbell also broke the school record in her 100 back. The women's 400m relay team of Campbell, Kassandra Bispo, Kimberly Welch Doroghian and Andrea Grant took third. Dayna Christensen placed second in the 3m dive.
'The meet was really good,' Campbell said. 'We were up against some really good competition. We were in the running for the championship and we did better than we thought we were going to do.'
The Cougars had a minor mishap on the men's side with a disqualification in the 200m relay, which could have been a questionable call. That relay could have scored a decent amount of points for the men, and was disappointing for the Cougars to say the least.
On a better note, Sorenson, a freshman, won the Freshman of the Meet award, which is awarded by all the MPSF coaches present. One freshman from every school is entered, and this year BYU brought it home.