Richards and Jenkins earn Olympic trial cuts in American Short Course Championships

American Short Course Championship Results-Day 1

AUSTIN, Texas – Stephen Richards and Preston Jenkins earned Olympic trial cuts in a great performance for BYU in the American Short Course Championship Thursday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas.

“We are really excited about Stephen and Preston getting their trial cuts,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “A majority of the other swimmers from our team that competed, swam lifetime-best times in their events, so ultimately we are very happy with the way things went today.”

Richards and Jenkins earned their trips to this year’s Olympic trials during the morning preliminaries. Richards qualified in the 100-meter breaststroke with a 1:03.31, while Jenkins qualified in the 100 backstroke with a 56.53.

Thursday morning’s preliminaries included qualifying events for the 400 individual medley, 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and 50 free. BYU qualified one swimmer for the 400 IM championship finals, two for the 200 free, four to the 100 back, three for the 100 breaststroke, two for the 200 fly and two for the 50 free championship finals.

Kelly Hatanaka was the top finisher for BYU in the women’s 400 IM, swimming a 5:06.85 for sixth place.

In the women’s 200 free, Lauren Shaw Taylor earned a seventh-place finish, posting a 2:06.10.

Taylor took ninth in the women’s 100 back, clocking a time of 1:04.86. Payton Sorenson and Rainer Ng took second and third in the men’s event, earning times of 57.51 and 57.68, respectively.

Anna Dahl earned the top time for BYU in the women’s 100 breaststroke, posting a 1:14.50 for 12th place. On the men’s side, Chad Sorensen swam a 1:06.93, good enough for 16th.

In the women’s 200 fly, Vanessa Moffatt clocked a 2:18.68 for a fourth-place finish. In the men’s event, Seth Russell marked a 2:09.32, good enough for 10th.

Ellie Thornbrue had the top finish for the Cougars in the women’s 50 free with a 26.73, good enough for 11th overall.

The meet will pick back up Friday, with preliminaries beginning at 9:15 a.m. CST, followed by event finals at 6 p.m. CST. Cougar fans can follow the championships on the live results page, and complete results will be posted to the men’s and women’s schedule pages following the meet.