The BYU swim and dive teams successfully competed in their first official meet of the season at the Intermountain Shootout hosted by Colorado Mesa University Oct. 3–4.
“Overall we had a lot of nice swims,” Coach John Brooks said. “The races that we didn’t win were all really close, so we did a great job. We had nice swims on both days, and this is a great start to the season.”
The men’s team won three of its dual-meets, defeating Air Force, Colorado Mesa University and Colorado Mesa University Club, while losing to the University of Utah. The women defeated Colorado Mesa while losing to Utah.
FRIDAY
The women’s 200-yard medley relay team of Ciera Marsh Keller, Riley Buer, Emily To’o and Alora Foliaki got things started with a third-place finish in the first event of the day.
Michael King, Jake Taylor, Rainer Ng and McKay King recorded a second-place finish in the men’s 200 medley relay with a time of 1:30.95.
True freshman Vanessa Moffatt picked up BYU’s first win of the event, recording a 1:54.62 in the women’s 200-yard freestyle, showing spectators what swimming is all about.
Taylor picked up a second-place finish in the men’s 200 free, finishing in 1:40.69.
Hayden Palmer, Luis Ventura and Rafael Alfaro picked up top-five finishes in the men’s 400 individual medley. Palmer turned in a second-place finish with a 4:02.53, and Ventura took fourth in 4:06.00. Alfaro finished just behind Ventura with a 4:06.73.
Foliaki, Keller and To’o finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the women’s 50 free. Foliaki finished in 24:42, Keller just behind her at 24:97 and To’o at 25:03.
Haley Bertoldo finished in 58:10 in the women’s 100-yard backstroke, good enough for a fifth-place finish.
Taylor won the men’s 100 back with a 48:95, and Ng finished second, turning in a 50:12 finish.
Moffatt finished second in the grueling 1,650 free, with a 17:50.19. Ventura took third in men’s 1,650 free, with a 16:06.33.
For the dive team, Haley Francois Quinn finished third in the one-meter with a score of 219.60. Ali Tippets finished sixth, with a 202.40.
Kevin Dreesen recorded a second-place finish in the men’s three-meter, scoring 303.45. Nathan Gonzales finished third, with a 280.15.
SATURDAY
The women’s 200 free relay team of Alexandria Sorensen, Marsh, To’o and Foliaki got things started on Saturday, taking second place with a time of 1:38.72. The men’s 200 free relay made up of Taylor, Levi Jensen, Ng and Alfaro also tallied a second-place time with a 1:24.28.
Michael King finished third in the men’s 50 breast, with a time of 26.30; coming in right behind him was Chad Sorensen, who touched the wall in 26.73.
Buer finished fourth in the women’s 200 IM in 2:11.70, and just a couple seconds behind her for a fifth place finish was Lillian Moore, who came in at 2:13.07. The men’s team took the two top spots in the men’s 200 individual medley. Palmer took first with a time of 1:52.28, and coming in behind him for second place was Taylor, at 1:52.58.
Taylor won the men’s 200 back, finishing with a time of 1:51.28, and Sorensen was able to take third in the men’s 200 breast, touching the wall in 2:07.29.
Hanna Skaggs finished with a third-place time of 2:25.87 in the women’s 200 breast, and just behind her was Buer, finishing fourth with a time 2:27.09.
Both the men and women’s 400 free relay teams took third in their respective events. The women’s team, made up of Emily Harris, Lauren Taylor, Moffatt and Sydney Dahl, recorded a time of 3:37.73. For the men it was Taylor, McKay King, Ventura and Alfaro touching the wall, with a time of 3:04.96.
Both dive teams had a good Saturday, with the women finishing second and third in the three-meter. Mackenzie Rands scored a 258.15 and Quinn a 252.60. For the men, true freshman Gonzales won the one-meter event, scoring a 318.20 in the first meet of his career.
The women’s team heads to California in a couple of weeks to compete against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Oct. 25, at noon with the men’s next meet in Las Vegas against UNLV on Nov. 8 at noon.
