MPSF Championship Results-Day 4

MPSF Championship Final Results

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. – BYU men’s swim and dive earned its third straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Saturday night at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California. The women’s team finished the meet in fourth place overall.

"I am extremely proud of our entire team," BYU head coach John Brooks said. "The men's team did great, and the women's team really stepped it up and did a great job today. We had athletes step up in each event and really battle. I was also really impressed with all of the divers' performances at the championship. Kevin Dreesen did an amazing job in all of his events. I'm just really proud of our team."

The men’s team ran away with its third straight MPSF title, posting a score of 862. The women’s team ended the meet with a total score of 507. Highlights from the day included Vanessa Moffatt, Dallin Johnson, Kelly Hatanaka, Jake Taylor, Preston Jenkins, Payton Sorenson, Anna Dahl, Stephen Richards, Lillian Moore and Luis Ventura. Sorenson broke a school and MPSF Championship record in the 100 free and Stirling, Taylor, Jenkins and Sorenson also broke another MPSF Championship record in the 400 free relay.

The preliminaries on Saturday morning featured qualifying events for the 200-yard backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly. BYU returned five swimmers to the 200 back championship finals, two to the 100 free, four to the 200 breaststroke and three to the 200 fly championship finals.

In the women’s 1650 free, Moffatt was the top performer for BYU, posting a 16:52.47. On the men’s side of the event, Johnson took home the win with a 15:29.94.

Hatanaka led the BYU women in the 200 back, earning fifth place with a 2:00.87 finish. Taylor and Jenkins took first and second in the men’s event with times of 1:40.96 and 1:43.75, respectively.

Sorenson sprinted to a 42.94 for first place, breaking a school record and an MPSF Championship record in the 100 free.

In the women’s 200 breaststroke, Dahl earned a 2:15.32, good enough for third place. On the men’s side, Richards took first place in 1:58.01.

Moore posted a 2:01.13 in the women’s 200 fly, good enough for third in the event. Ventura earned a third-place finish in the men’s event with a time of 1:47.69.

In the last event of the championship, a team of Ellie Thornbrue, Natalie Bennion, Katie Smith and Lauren Shaw Taylor took sixth in the 400 free relay with a 3:26.14. The men’s relay team of Taylor, Jenkins, Connor Stirling and Sorenson shattered an MPSF Championship meet record, taking first place with a 2:53.11.

Diving

PASADENA, Calif. – Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp and Kevin Dreesen both registered second-place finishes on platform as BYU dive wrapped a successful week at the MPSF Diving Championships Saturday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California.

In the women’s platform event, Tippetts-Kottcamp dove to a 239.2, good enough for second overall in a crowded competition.

Dreesen was the top performer on the men’s side, posting a second-place finish with a score of 340.50.

BYU swim will see its next action as a select group of swimmers travel to compete in the American Short Course Championships in Austin, Texas, March 3-5. Qualifying divers will compete next in the Zone E Diving Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, on March 9-11.

PROVO, Utah – BYU swim and dive will enter its postseason by competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships this Wednesday through Saturday in Monterey Park and Pasadena, California.

“This is what we swim and dive for all year,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “Everyone will be rested and ready to get up and be the very best we can be. The men’s team is the defending champion and we should be able to defend that title again this year. Our women’s team is going to have to put in a great effort, but we have a great opportunity. We are just looking to have a great meet, break some school records and hopefully qualify one of our relays for NCAA finals.”

The swimming championships will take place at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif., while the divers will compete at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, Calif. Wednesday’s relays will begin at 6 p.m. PST. Thursday through Saturday will feature morning preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. PST, with finals for each day’s events beginning at 6 p.m. PST. Diving will begin at 11 a.m. PST Thursday and Friday, with Saturday’s platform event beginning at noon PST. For a full schedule of events, check the MPSF website.

The BYU men will take on Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, Hawai’i and Pacific. The women’s team will be competing against Cal Poly, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, Hawai’i, Pacific and San Diego.

After a successful season, the men’s team will be looking to three-peat as MPSF champions. In last year’s championships, Jake Taylor won Swimmer of the Meet and Brooks took home Coach of the Meet honors. Taylor also set an MPSF Championship record in the 200 backstroke with a 1:41.15 finish. The women’s team took fourth place in last season's championships and will look to rebound and build off some great performances this year.

Championship events will be streamed online through a live webcast. Cougar fans can access live swimming results online, and diving results on divemeets.com. Live results will also be posted on the Meet Mobile app. Full meet-day results will be posted following each day’s events on the men’s and women’s schedule pages.