BYU’s men and women swim teams dominated the Intermoutain Shootout in Colorado Oct. 11–12.
“A two-day meet (is) where the swimmers can really focus on a couple events in a day,” said coach John Brooks. “In our intrasquad events, the meet is over within a few hours, and this gives them a break and a chance to swim fast.”
And swim fast they did. Many of the swimmers were able to set personal bests and break pool records.
“A few of our swimmers had their personal lifetime best-times, and some of our top swimmers are swimming really fast,” said head coach John Brooks. “This meet did what we wanted it to because it gave our swimmers a chance to perform at their best in their events.”
The shootout was hosted by Colorado Mesa University, and BYU and Air Force were invited to compete. BYU did not attend last year’s conference, and the meet was largely won by the Air Force’s men’s team.
However, this time around the men’s team beat Air Force with a score of 212.5-138.5 and Colorado Mesa with an impressive 266-95. BYU’s women’s team beat Colorado Mesa 280-82 and Colorado State 192-176.
“The team all together did an amazing swim. When people have an amazing swim the team feeds off of it. Everyone wants to step it up and do well,” Hailey Campbell said.
On the first day of the dual meet the Cougars won many events including the first four places in the women’s 200 free, the men’s 200 medley relay and the women’s 400 IM.
Jessica Ampuero finished a full four seconds before any of her competitors in the 400 IM, and Hayden Palmer finished in 4:04:25.
The women’s team also dominated the 50 fly. They finished in the top four-out-of-five spot in the event with Kimberly Doroghian leading with Alexandria Sorensen, Zerlynn Taing, and Haley Bertoldo following.
“I think our team is really strong this year,” Doroghain said. “We’re really close knit, and I’m really excited to see how it will play throughout the rest of the year.”
Hailey Campbell shattered the El Pomar Natatorium record in 100 back with an impressive time of 55.79.
“It felt great to get the pool record; it’s a big confidence booster,” Campbell said.
Rainer Ng came in under 50 seconds with a phenomenal time of 49.71 in the men’s 100 back.
The second day of the meet the Cougars started off by sweeping both the men’s and women’s 200 free relay. Another pool record was broken by Doroghian, Campbell, Grant and Sorensen when they finished in 1:36:50.
Once again the women’s team beat all competitors in the fly events. In the 100 fly the women filled all top-five positions, with Doroghian finishing under 56 seconds with a 55.51 time.
The Cougars are looking to keep their momentum up and swim well against Boise State and Colorado Mesa on Oct. 26.
