Swimmers Return With Combined Victory

PROVO -- The BYU swim team returned from competing at the Pacific Invite Friday and Saturday with the first-place title for both men and women.

“Our swimmers preformed to our expectations and did very well this weekend,” BYU head coach Tim Powers said. “We had some swimmers participating in events they usually wouldn’t and we found out that some were very successful. It’s good to know that we can spread out some swimmers to different events and know that they will do well.”

The women’s team placed first with 1228 points in the meet overall, while Washington State came in second with 914.5 points and University of the Pacific and Fresno State in third and fourth with 466.5 and 346 points, respectively.

The men’s team totaled 846.5 points for first while Stanford came in second with 737, University of the Pacific placed third with 560.5 and Berkeley in fourth with 478.

Highlights of day two of the Pacific Invite included the women’s 200 freestyle relay taking second place with a time of 1:35.97, close behind Washington State.

Senior Rachel Grant and freshman Kim Welch took first and second in the 200 butterfly with times of 2:00.34 and 2:03.66, respectively.

In the 100 backstroke, Candice Smith and Sara Jayne Baldwin placed second and third with times of 57.08 and 58.69, respectively. For the men’s team, freshman Jake Taylor placed fourth with a time of 50.70.

Freshman Allie Dodds took first with a time of 5:01.16 in the 500-yard freestyle, earning the team 20 points.

In the 200 IM, the BYU women had a 1-4 sweep with Grant placing first with a time of 2:03.52, Baldwin in second with 2:05.62, Jessica Ampuero in third with a time of 2:08.31 and Londyn Clawson in fourth with 2:09.54.

In the same event, senior Christian Keil took seventh with a time of 46.92 and junior Ryan Krause placed eighth right behind him at 47.21.

In the 200 backstroke, Candice Smith recorded a first-place time for the Cougars at 2:04.30 while freshmen Taylor and Stephen Richards placed sixth and seventh for the men with respective times of 1:54.04 and 1:55.71.

Welch placed first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.75 while Grant placed second right behind her at 55.86.

To close the meet, the women placed first in the 800 free relay with a time of 7:39.98. The women’s team consisted of Grant, Baldwin, Dodds and Michelle Menezes.

In the same event, team members Taylor, Keil, McKay King and John Kendrick placed third with a time of 6:54.74.

The BYU swim team will return to the Richards Building pool next weekend for a meet featuring Denver on Oct. 30 at 1p.m.