Colorado Mesa Invite Day 1

Day 1 Results

Day 1 Scores

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.–In its first official meet of the season, BYU swim and dive showed a strong outing on the first day of the Colorado Mesa Invite at the El Pomar Natatorium Friday night.

“Ellie Thornbrue and Kelly Hatanaka did a great job in their events tonight, as did Jake Taylor and Preston Jenkins,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “As far as tomorrow goes, we want to be a little cleaner on our turns and relay exchanges. Overall, we had good times but we have some technical things that we need to be a little cleaner on.”

BYU took the first event of the night in the women’s 200-yard relay as a team of Ashlee Spindler, Anna Dahl, Emily To’o and Alexandria Sorensen finished with a time of 1:47.78. In the men’s event, the team of Jake Taylor, Stephen Richards, Rainer Ng and Payton Sorenson took second place for the Cougars with a 1:30.56 finish.

The BYU women swept the 200 free event, with Ellie Thornbrue taking first with a time of 1:54.36, Lauren Shaw Taylor taking second with a time of 1:54.60 and Brenna Dickson taking third with a 1:54.98 finish. Jake Taylor placed first in the men’s event, finishing in 1:45.15, while Preston Jenkins took second with a finishing time of 1:42.82.

Freshman Kelly Hatanaka got her first win of the night in the women’s 400 individual medley with a 4:31.65 finish. Ellie Thornbrue took second in the event with a 4:33.48 finish and Lillian Moore placed third, finishing in 4:36.71. On the men’s side of the event, Stephen Richards took second place with a 4:04.80 finish, while Luis Ventura took third, finishing in 4:07.52.

In the men’s 100 backstroke event, Taylor placed first with a 48.31 finish, which is currently the fourth-ranked time in the nation. Ng took third in the event with a 50.33 finish.

Katie Smith took first for BYU in the women’s 50 butterfly event, finishing in 25.70. To’o finished a close second with a time of 26.19. In the men’s event, Chad Sorensen finished with a time of 23.33, good enough to earn second place.

In the final event of the night, Vanessa Moffatt got the first place finish for the Cougars in the 1650 free, finishing in 17:49.26. Ventura took first for the men, finishing in 16:17.67.

“I like that we are getting back into the swing of things and throwing our harder dives,” BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson said. “The whole team stuck to the game plan of keeping a routine and a competitive focus. If we can pay attention to corrections and executing what we are working on, we will have a successful meet”

In the women’s one-meter dive event, Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp placed third with a score of 243.20. Shelby Johnson took fifth place for the Cougars with a 206.65 score.

In the men’s three-meter dive, Kevin Dreesen and Matt Denkers finished first and second. Dreesen tallied a 327.75 score, while Denkers finished just behind at 326.10

The Colorado Mesa Invite will continue tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. MDT. Meet times can be tracked using the live results page here.

PROVO, Utah– The BYU swim and dive teams will travel to Colorado Mesa University to kick off the season at the Colorado Mesa Invite this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10, at the El Pomar Natatorium.

“We’re getting into the part of the season where things actually count, and we are really excited to get things started,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “Everything counts towards rankings. This meet means a lot and also gives the coaches a benchmark to see where our swimmers are at as the season begins.”

The invite will serve as the first official meet for BYU. The Cougars will travel both men’s and women’s swim and dive teams. Other teams competing at the invite will include Colorado Mesa (men’s and women’s), Air Force (men’s team only) and Colorado State (women’s team only).

Events will begin on Friday at 5 p.m. MDT and run throughout the evening. The meet will pick back up on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. MDT. Live results can be found here for all invite events.