Sophomore Katie McBratney set a new Richards Building Pool record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.98 on Nov. 7. Her three individual titles helped the Cougars take home a dominating victory in their season opener versus Dixie State.
Because of the global pandemic, the meet marked the Cougars' first official competition since March.
“It is truly a blessing to be back,” McBratney said. “It was really hard to take a break and be gone from something I’ve done my whole life. I’ve never taken more than a week break. So it’s really awesome to be back in the water and be with the team again.”
Though the abrupt end to last season was disappointing, the coaching staff has been able to help the team come together and remain hopeful through it all.
“Its been really cool to see how we’ve grown in unity over the last few months,' McBratney said. 'I think if we just continue to work on that, we’re going to be even better than years in the past.”
McBratney was also named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Female Athlete of the Week following the meet, marking her third time winning the award. She is coming off a hot freshman season, in which she won MPSF Freshman of the Year, and made several MPSF First Team honors.
The women’s team finished first in 12 of the 13 events against Dixie State. First place finishers included: McBratney, Jessica LeSueur, Rivers Johnson, Chloe Freeman, Gwen Gustafson and Emma Colvin. In diving, Kennedy Cribbs took first in both the one-meter and three-meter. Adia London and Morgan Paul took second in each of those competitions, respectively.
The men’s team was scheduled to take on Colorado Mesa on Nov. 7, but the Mavericks were unable to make the trip due to team issues with COVID-19. Instead, the men’s team competed in an intrasquad competition.
“We had really good spirits on both the men’s and women’s teams,” BYU head coach John Brooks said in the team’s press release. “We are really grateful for Dixie State for coming and we missed Colorado Mesa. We had some really big swims today and people are living in the moment right now.”
Although the men were unable to officially compete, they came away with some strong performances out of Tyler Edelfson, who took first in three events: the 100 breaststroke, the 200 breaststroke, and the 200 IM. Caleb Gould was another highlight from the meet, finishing with two first-place times in the 500 free and 1,000 free.
BYU has no other meets scheduled at this time, but the Cougars will continue to train with hopes for future fall meets.