Season begins with blue and white meet

PROVO, Utah – The BYU swim and dive team kicked off its season with the annual blue and white meet Saturday morning in the Richards Building Pool.

Taryn Toolson Lewis and Brady Wells were named captains of the blue team and Londyn Clawson and Garret Beaman acting as captains of the white team. Scoring was based on the meet events as well as a few activities during the week.

“We had great team spirit out there today,” head coach John Brooks said. “It was fun to see everyone competing against each other.”

The meet started off with a co-ed 200 medley relay. The white team consisting of Preston Jenkins, Kassandra Bispo, Alexandria Sorensen and Garret Beaman won the heat against two blue relay teams.

Following the 200 medley relay was the 1000 free where both the men and women competed in the same heat. Shawn Western tapped the wall first for the men and Alexandra Dodds came in first for the women.

Hailey Campbell was the first woman to touch the wall in the 100 back. Jenkins came in first for the men.

Jessica Ampuero tallied a first-place finish in the 200 fly with Dodds coming in second. Gary Arthur won the men’s heat with David Armstrong coming in second place.

Just before the break, Lewis nabbed a first-place finish in the 50 free while Brent Murray won on the men’s side.

Across the deck, Nicholas Suder won the 1-meter and Edward Young won the 3-meter. For the women, Dayna Christensen won both the 1-meter and the 3-meter.

In the 200 backstroke, the white team swept the top three positions with Jenkins coming in first followed by Western in second and Ryan Bills in third. Ampuero got another first place finish followed by Adelin Marsh in second place.

Following the 200 back, Clawson finished first in the 200 breast with freshman Mallory Harris coming in next for second place. Hayden Palmer won the event for the men with Andrew Rutherfurd tapping the wall second.

Dodds grabbed another first-place finish for the white team in the 500 free. Western tallied his second first-place finish for the white team for the men.

The final event was the co-ed 400 free relay. The race came down to the very end with the blue team consisting of Campbell, David Armstrong, Andrea Grant and Andrew Rutherfurd touching the wall two-one hundredths of a second before the white team.

“What a great way to end the meet,” Brooks said. “It was great to see everyone gathered around the pool cheering on the relays.”

Next week the Cougars travel to Honolulu to compete against the University of Hawaii on Oct. 5-6.