Cougars excel in final events of US Open

PROVO, Utah — In the final events of the Toyota US Open, swimmers Diego Camacho, Emerson Edwards and Abe Barragan led the way for the Cougars, with Edwards and Barragan setting career-best times in their respective events. 

Camacho was the first BYU swimmer to compete on the day in the 200m backstroke. He went on to place 26th out of all the heats, swimming a 2:06.97. This would be the only event Camacho would participate in Saturday.

Edwards had a career day, setting a new lifetime best in the prelim 200m breaststroke with a 2:21.43. The last time he swam the event seven years ago, he swam a 2:33, showing significant improvement over the years. This qualified him for the C final which took place later Saturday evening. He followed up his strong prelim performance by placing third out of eight swimmers, swimming a 2:20.63, breaking his previously set lifetime best by nearly a full second. 

In the 1500m freestyle event, Barragan delivered a strong performance for the Cougars, swimming a new career-best 16:01.79 to place 15th overall in the competition. 

After a successful weekend of swimming for the BYU participants at the US Open, the swim and dive teams will now turn their attention towards the University of Denver. They will prepare to travel to Denver, Colorado on January 6th to compete in a head-to-head duel that will take place in the Ritchie Center.