BYU Leads-Off the Season Beating Out Utah and Villanova

PROVO -- The BYU swimming and diving team edged out in-state rival Utah and Villanova for their first pre-season meet and victory at the annual Don Reddish Relays at Utah Thursday night. The BYU men took eight out of the 12 relays and the women took half of theirs, going six for 12.

Junior Brett Allen stood out for the Cougars with a 20.51 lead on the 50 free in the 200 freestyle relay, and Junior Jorge Azevedo clocked in at 49.6 in the 3x100 fly. Freshman John Kendrick made a good show for the Cougars with a 4:40 in his leg of the 500 free.

"I'm pleased with our guys' performance tonight," said men's swimming coach Tim Powers. "We're about where we were hoping to be."

With equal momentum, the women led their portion of the relays. BYU women's swimming coach Stan Crump said the success is just a forecast of the season ahead.

"Pretty good for mid-October," said Crump. "We'll be hard to beat."

BYU's 400 medley relay team, made up of senior Brittany Davis, sophomores Angela Goodson and Jamie Bloom and freshman Leilani Roberts finished in 3:55.67, nearly five seconds ahead of Utah's team, who came in at 4:00.26.

The women have two more weeks of training before they head to Stockton, California for their last warm-up before the regular season at the Pacific Invitational Oct. 28-29. The men will report to the Big West Shootout in Irvine, California Nov. 4-5 for their final preseason match-up before BYU hosts UNLV to begin the regular season Nov. 11.