Cougars start strong in first two days of Dixie Invitational

ST. GEORGE, Utah — BYU’s swim teams traveled to St. George, Utah this week for the Dixie State Invitational from Nov. 18-20. The women’s team faced 10 other teams while at Dixie, and the men’s team competed against three opponents. The three-day meet featured preliminary competitions in the mornings, followed by finals held in the evenings.

Day One

The men’s team earned several wins and broke two school records during Thursday night’s finals.

Freshman Tanner Nelson broke another BYU record on Thursday night, earning first place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:16.62. A team of Diego Camacho, Josue Dominguez, Javier Nicolas Matta and Connor Stirling then broke a BYU record and won the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:09.63.

Stirling went on to place second in the A Final of the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.63. Matta secured a win in the A Final of the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:46.33. Brad Prolo placed first in the B Final of that event, swimming a time of 1:48.75.

The women’s team also came out strong on the first night of competition, with Katie McBratney earning third place in the A Final of the women’s 200-yard IM with a time of 2:02.43. Summer Murphy placed first in the B Final of the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:04.54, while Sofia Pusceddu placed first in the C Final of the same event with a time of 2:06.43.

Chloe Freeman took first in the C Final of the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:59.64, and Halli Williams won the B Final of the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.43.

Day Two

The women’s team continued to have success on the second day of competition.

Brynn Sproul won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.85. A team of Sproul, Sasha Shatskikh, McBratney and Regan Geldmacher took second in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 7:29.35. Another relay team of Sproul, McBratney, Emma Colvin and Williams took third in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:41.87.

McBratney earned another top-three placement in the 100-yard breaststroke, taking third place with a time of 1:02.59. Abi Furqueron followed right behind in fourth place, with a time of 1:02.60.

The Cougars also took the first three placements in the C Final of the women’s 100-yard butterfly. Ashley Catchpole took first with a time of 56.42, while Jess Nyborg and Rivers Johnson took second and third place, with times of 57.52 and 57.67 respectively.

The men’s team secured a few more first-place finishes on Friday as well as continuing to break school records.

Nelson beat a BYU record in the 400-yard IM, swimming a 3:44.88 and taking first place in that event. Matta broke a BYU record for the 100-yard butterfly during the preliminaries in the morning, swimming the race in 46.83. He went on to take second in the finals with a time of 47.38.

A relay team of Camacho, Dominguez, Matta and Stirling took first in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:26.21. Dominguez then took first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 52.42, followed by Brad Prolo, who took second in that race with a 54.15.

Camacho and Stirling took third and fourth in the 100-yard backstroke, swimming times of 48.03 and 49.18 respectively. Ethan Kramer took first in the B Final of the same event with a time of 50.64. Brigham Harrison also took first place in the B Final of the 200-yard freestyle, swimming a 1:39.77.

BYU’s divers swept Friday’s events. Kayli Kersavage won the women’s one-meter competition with a 257.20, and Sydney Kowalski earned second in that event with a 218.21. Eric Muir won the men’s three-meter dive with a score of 304.65.

The meet continues on Saturday, Nov. 20 with preliminary competitions starting at 10 a.m. MST and finals beginning at 5 p.m. MST. A live stream is available on the WAC Network.