Cougars split wins with UNLV

PROVO, Utah -- BYU men’s and women’s swimming and diving split wins with UNLV Saturday at the Richards Building pool. The women were victorious over UNLV scoring 198-102 while the men fell 140-160.

“Our women swam well across the board and rebounded well after Boise State,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “For the men, we knew it was going to be a battle, and we knew it was going to be tough. But UNLV is fast and we did as well as we were hoping to do, but we needed to win one more event in order for us to win the meet, and it came down to the last relay.”

The women opened up the meet with a big win in the 200 medley relay. The team of Hailey Campbell, Brittani Finlayson, Kimberly Doroghian and Alexandria Sorensen won the event with a time of 1:45.12. On the men's side, the team of Rainer Ng, Chad Sorensen, Lucas Aquino and Jordan Fletcher earned second, coming up just under a second shy of UNLV.

Alexandra Dodds and Camille Okelberry went first (10:37.27) and second (10:39.87), respectively, in the women's 1000 free distance event.

Campbell earned her first individual win of the day in the 100 back, touching the wall in just 55.72. Ng also earned his first win of the day in a time of 49.35.

Riley Buer recorded her first win of the season, swimming the 100 breast in 1:07.30. For the men, Andrew Rutherfurd came in second, close behind UNLV in a time of 57.72.

In the women's 200 fly, Doroghian was victorious for the Cougars, finishing in 2:05.79 with teammates Zerlynn Tiang and Jessica Ampuero following in the second- and third-place positions.

Aquino earned second in the men's 200 fly in a time of 1:53.08 to place in the event for the Cougars.

BYU competed well in the sprint events also. Sorensen earned a second place finish in the women’s 50 free, touching the wall in 24.08, just one tenth of a second shy of the win. For the men’s team, Fletcher also earned second with a time of 20.42.

The men and women were victorious in the diving pool, taking first and second place in both the 1- and 3- meter.

“I think we did great today, and we’re showing great progression,” head diving coach Keith Russell said. “I am excited for the University of Arizona Invite, and if we can do what we did today then we’ll do great there too.”

Raleigh Williams Taylor took first place in the women’s 3-m with a score of 268.80. Mackenzie Rands and Haley Francois helped with the sweep, taking second and third. In the 1-m, Taylor took first again with 278.25 followed by teammate Megan Johnson who scored 237.075.

Nicholas Suder won both events against UNLV for the second year in a row, scoring 322.575 in the men’s 1-m and 309.90 in the 3-m. Matt Hopper took second in the 1-m, and Edward Young earned second in the 3-m and third in the 1-m.

In the women’s 200 breast, Buer earned her second victory of the day with a time of 2:25.48. Johanna Skaggs came in close behind in 2:25.87. On the men's side, Rafael Alfaro finished second (2:05.06) in the event in a very close race against UNLV.

In the women's 100 fly, Doroghian finished first again in 55.59 for her second individual victory of the day. Fletcher earned the win for the men, swimming the event in 49.67.

Ampuero recorded her first win of the day in the 200 individual medley. She finished in 2:08.36 with teammate Buer close behind.

The women closed the meet with an exciting victory in the 400 free relay. The team of Campbell, Doroghian, Sorensen and Andrea Grant completed the event in 3:29.31. The team of Stott Bushnell, McKay King, Rutherfurd and Jake Taylor completed the men's event in 3:03.50, five tenths off of the winning time, just short of the event victory and maybe the meet victory.

The Cougars take a week off before heading to UNLV, who will host the UNLV Invite on Nov. 21-23.