Cougars break more records as Utah Tech Invite concludes

PROVO, Utah — Five more personal-best times were set by the BYU swim teams in what was the final day of the Utah Tech Invite. The women's team finished the Invite with a total of 21 points, while the men garnered 189 points over the course of the events. 

Saturday's meet included six more events as the Cougars competed in the 1650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 400-yard freestyle relay (finals session).

Darwin Anderson, Jacob Ballard and Max Cannon had the highest finishes for the Cougars in their respective prelim and final events. In the 1650-yard freestyle, Anderson posted a 15:57.42, contributing 14 points to the team's final tally. Ballard swam a 1:51.44 in the 200-yard butterfly for the men, scoring 14 points as well. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Cannon recorded a 2:02.05, outpacing his initial seed time of 2:08.18.

Freshman Colette Masino had a strong performance on Saturday, setting two new personal-best records in the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.67) and 200-yard butterfly (2:06.79). In the 100-yard freestyle, freshman Annie Robinson posted a new career time in the 100-yard freestyle, swimming a 53.76, along with Kate Hansen, who swam a 53.30 in the event, and Darwin Anderson, who posted a 46.33 for the men. 

Weekend Summary

The swim and dive teams found incredible success between the two invites this week leading through Saturday evening. Multiple swimmers found themselves near the top of their event rankings for the country after their impressive performances. Javier Nicolas currently sits in the top 20 in the country in two events, standing at 8th in the men's 100-yard butterfly (46.40) and 17th 100-yard freestyle (43.26).

"Our number one gaol was to get these athletes to race each other in their best events in practice, and it is paying off," said coach Shari Skabelund. "We dominated the breaststroke events and had significant time drops in all our other events, from sprinting to distance. The men's and women's teams both had strong performances, and their consistent hard work is paying off." 

The breaststrokers were the story of the weekend for the Cougar swimmers. Three athletes currently find themselves in the top 20 in the country in the 100-yard breaststroke, with Josue Dominguez (52.99) standing in 13th, Evan VanderSluis (53.03) in 14th and Will Bonnett (53.18) and Brad Prolo (53.18) sitting tied for the 16th best time. The men's 200-yard breaststroke featured times again from Bonnett (1:56.66), VanderSluis (1:57.07), Emerson Edwards (1:57.88) and Dominguez (1:58.24), good for 21st, 24th, 32nd and 39th best in the country. 

After Prolo's swift time in the 200-yard butterfly (1:43.26), he currently holds the 6th best time in the country, the highest individual ranking among any of the Cougar athletes in an event at this time. 

Mackenzie Miller of the women's team also swam top-50 times in two events over the weekend. In the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.06) she holds the 33rd best time in the country, while her 2:11.94 in the 200-yard breaststroke is good for 24th in the country. 

After successful weekends in the Mizzou Invite and Utah Tech Invite, the Cougars will return home and prepare to compete in the Toyota US Open held in Greensboro, North Carolina on Nov. 30-Dec. 3. Times of when the events will occur will be updated as the competition approaches, with Live Stream and Live Stat options updated on the schedule tab. Follow the BYU swim and dive social media pages on Instagram and Twitter for updates as well.