Men Take Third, Women Take Fourth at MPSF Championships

LA MIRADA, Calif. – The BYU men’s swim and dive team finished third overall with a final score of 673, while the women’s team took fourth at 525.50 at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships at the La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.

On the final day, BYU’s Payton Sorenson set a conference record in the 100-yard freestyle with an NCAA b-cut time of 42.24 that also replaced his No. 1 time in BYU program history.

Teammates Ryan Sorensen and Javier Matta also claimed b-cut times in their events. Sorensen received his D-I cut in the 200-yard breaststroke with an impressive time of 1:58.32, while Matta secured his cut in the 200-yard butterfly with BYU’s No. 3 all-time fastest time of 1:46.62.

In the women’s 100-yard freestyle, Gwen Gustafson placed first with a career high of 49.61 and BYU’s all-time No. 2 time. In the same event, Katie Smith and Kali Brown earned career-best times of 51.06 and 51.74, respectively.

Several other Cougars had career-best swims on the final day, including Jared Shaw, Brayden Murphy, James Sorenson and Tama Tuitama for the men, and Mariah Lindsay, Ellie Smith and Madelyn Flower for the women.

Over on the dive side, the BYU dive team claimed first in the championships with a total score of 367.00.

“I’m proud of the divers and how they raised their levels of performance each day,” BYU head dive coach Tyce Rouston said. “Their hard work paid off. There were so many wonderful performances at this MPSF meet for the Cougar divers.”

Kaela Call earned another zone cut in the platform event with a personal best and BYU’s No. 1 all-time record of 254.65. Kennedy Cribbs also put herself on the program’s all-time board at No. 4, scoring another zone cut for herself at 237.30

Kimble Mahler finished in fourth for the men in platform with his second zone cut and a No. 4 BYU all-time score of 332.75, while Nathan Gonzales posted his third and final zone cut at 308.10. In addition, Morgan Cooper secured his last zone cut and personal best platform score of 306.00.

For the first time in BYU history, all divers will compete at the Zone E Diving Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, on March 11-13 at the Douglas J. Wall Aquatics Center. Decisions about which BYU swimmers will compete at the NCAA Championships will be determined in the following weeks.