BYU Swimmers Perform Well at Annual Speedo Cup

IRVINE -- In a field of 23 teams, the BYU men's and women's swim teams fared well at this weekend's annual Speedo Cup competition, with the men taking over the second-place spot and the women securing fifth overall.

The men were led by junior All-American Arunas Savickas, who dominated the pool all three days. Savickas won the 100 back and 500 free events while leading the 800 free relay team to a first-place finish. In addition, Savickas took second in the 200 back while helping the 400 free and medley teams to runner-up finishes as well as the 200 free relay team to a third-place showing.

Also scoring big for the Cougar men was sophomore Rob Morris, who was a runner-up in the 200 free and a third-place finisher in the 1650 free. Freshman Gary Tan also did well, scoring a second-place showing in the 200 IM and fourth in the 200 back. The BYU team racked up a score of 1083 overall, good for second place behind UC-Santa Barbara.

The women also did well, rebounding from a sluggish first day to move up to fifth place overall with a score of 576.50. Junior Jennifer Tasker had a good competition for the Cougars, placing third in the 100 breast and fifth in the 200 breast on the second and third days. Though plagued by some disqualified relay teams, BYU did benefit from fourth and fifth place finishes by the 400 medley and 200 free relay teams.

"We had a rugged first day and had some trouble scoring in the free events as well as got some relays disqualified, which hurt us a little," BYU women's coach Stan Crump said. "It was as good as an individual swim as we've had down here though. The whole team swam very well."

The BYU swimmers will be off through the holiday break, resuming competition after the new year.