Cougars compete well in alumni meet

PROVO, Utah – A successful night of in-house competition started the BYU men’s and women’s swimming teams’ season at the alumni meet on Friday at the Richard’s Building Pool.

“Overall our team looks pretty good right now,” head coach John Brooks said. “A lot of our swimmers are way faster than we thought they were going to be and some are still building into the season. Rainer [Ng] and Lucas [Aquino] swam really well today and that was really exciting. We had a few of our breaststrokers race each other and surprise us as well.”

The Cougars dominated the alumni in this year’s meet. Many recent alumni as well as coaches Yolanda Bates and Tamber McAllister swam against the current team. 

Hailey Campbell, Mallory Harris, Kimberly Welch Doroghian and Alexandria Sorensen contributed to winning the first event of the night, the women’s 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:47.21. The men’s 200 medley relay team of Rainer Ng, Andrew Rutherfurd, Lucas Aquino and McKay King posted a 1:32.74 in the event.

University of Utah transfer Valerie McMullan won the women’s 200 free with a 1:55.95 in her first event as a Cougar. Stott Bushnell won the event for the men in 1:44.79. 

The next event was the 200 individual medley race. Jessica Ampuero took first in 2:10.69 with teammate Alexandra Dodds coming in right behind her with 2:11.21.  For the men, Hayden Palmer posted an impressive time of 1:55.39 for the win.

In the 50 free, Alexandria Sorensen took first-place for the women’s team in 24.90. Senior captain Jordan Fletcher wowed the audience with a time of 20.90.

Sophomore Mallory Harris earned her second win of the night in the 50 breast in 31.47, with University of Utah transfer Brittani Finlayson following close behind in 31.93. Michael King won the same event for the men with a time of 26.57.

The next event was the 50 back where Campbell took first place with a time of 26.98 and freshman Rainer Ng finished first in 23.02.

Next up was the 100 fly. Doroghian posted another first-place finish, touching the wall in 57.23. Freshman Lucas Aquino had an amazing finish in 49.70 for the win.

McMullan also picked up another first-place finish in the women’s 100 free in 53.33 while Sorensen finished in second with a time of 54.20. King posted a great time of 47.16 in the event in his first year back at BYU after serving a mission.

The meet continued with the 100 back where Campbell earned another win with a time of 57.73 and Ng snagged his third and final win of the night in just 50.90.

Camille Okelberry won the 500 free in a time of 5:19.01 with freshman teammate McKenna Fife close behind in 5:20.32. For the men’s team, the event was split by just under a second between freshman Jacob Davis who swam a time of 5:03.29 and returned missionary Dallin Johnson who swam in 5:03.70.

Fletcher earned another win in the men’s 50 fly with an impressive time of 22.59.

The 100 breast was next where Harris touched the wall first to win in 1:09.88. Finlayson placed second with 1:11.22. Chad Sorensen earned his first win of the night in the 100 breast by beating teammate Rutherfurd by just four tenths of a second with a time of 59.24.

The alumni meet ended with the 200 free relay. Teammates Doroghian, Campbell, Andrea Grant and Sorensen earned the final win for the women’s team in 1:38.01. Fletcher, Jake Taylor, McKay King and Brent Murray won the final event in 1:24.63. Fletcher touched the wall in 20.75 and King in 20.66 to help earn that win.

The diving team did not compete or post scores in the alumni meet this year, but instead took the night to practice before the official start of the swim and dive season. 

The Cougars will swim next in the Blue and White scrimmage on Saturday Sept. 28 beginning at 9 a.m. MDT at the Richards Building Pool.