Jake Taylor earns another first-team All-America honor

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- With a fourth-place finish in the men's 200-yard backstroke (1:39.87), junior Jake Taylor earned his second All-America honor Saturday night at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.

"I feel so good, and honestly I'm almost relieved that it's over," Taylor said after his final race. "I'm so glad I was able to accomplish the goals for myself and I'm looking forward to taking a little swimming break and getting rejuvenated before next season."

"I'm so proud of Jake," BYU head swim coach John Brooks said. "Obviously he is a great swimmer but he's an even better leader and representative of BYU. I credit him for his hard work and also assistant coach Yolanda Bates who has worked with Jake since he was a high schooler."

With half of the race to go, Taylor was in seventh place. The junior captain turned it on down the stretch and used splits of 25.68 and 25.40 to earn the fourth-place finish and the first-team All-America honor.

Taylor's top-five finish, along with his fourth-place 100-yard backstroke time from Friday helped vault the BYU men's swim and dive team into a top-25 finish (23rd) at the NCAA Championships. This concludes the Cougar swimmers and divers 2014-15 season.