Swimmers perform well at Pacific Invite

STOCKTON, Calf.– The BYU men's and women's swimming teams both finished second on day one of the Pacific Invite Friday.

The men's team finished with 681 points, behind leader University of the Pacific who scored 694 points in championship style scoring but  would have been in the lead if it was dual style scoring. On the women's side, the Cougars scored 484 points to finish behind the leader, San Diego State, who ended the day with 650 points and ahead of University of the Pacific who scored 343 points. 

"We swam a lot better than we did against Hawaii," head coach John Brooks said. "It was a good representation of our team and we are getting faster every time we swim. Our distance swimmers swam better this weekend and Andrea Grant swam a great race as well. We did some time trials after the meet and Brent Murray swam a 40 flat in the 100 free which is really good for him." 

The men's team won every event on the day with freshman Preston Jenkins leading the way with two individual victories in the 200 free and the 100 back. He finished the 200 free with a time of 1:41.92 and the 100 back with a time of 51.04.

The Cougars finished 1-2-3 in the men's 50 free with Jordan Fletcher winning in a time of 21.07. His time was the second fastest time in Pacific Invite history. Payton Sorenson finished second in 21.14 and Murray was third with a time of 21.20. Alexandria Sorensen finished second in the women's heat with a time of 23.90.

Senior Brady Wells won the 100 breast with a time of 58.06 and Andrew Rutherfurd tapped the wall in second place with a time of 58.26. Kassandra Bispo finished second in the 100 breast, touched the wall in 1:04.46 and Londyn Clawson finished fourth with a time of 1:04.84.

In the last event of the day, Shawn Western won the 1650 free in a time of 16:08.28.  Fellow Cougar McKay Palmer finished in second with a time of 16:14.41. On the women's side, the top finishers were Alexandra Dodds who finished in fifth in a time of 17:37.11 and Alina Fong who finished in sixth with a time of 17:58.38. 

The women's team is back in action next week on Oct. 26 against defending National Champion University of California. The men's team has the week off as it prepares for its meet against UNLV on Nov. 3.