Men win second-straight MPSF title, women take fourth

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. – The BYU men’s swimming and diving team won their second-straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship with 830.5 points and the women finished fourth with 471.5.

“The guys pulled off a nice win and our girls improved each day," BYU swim head coach John Brooks said. "Our men did what they needed to do and it feels really good to win the conference again.”

On the men’s side, UC Santa Barbara finished in second with 774.5 points and Hawaii in third with 721. The Hawaii women won the championship with 747 points, followed by UC Davis with 632 and UC Santa Barbara with 585.5.

"I'm so proud of our women," Brooks said. "They did such a good job battling back after having a rough first day, and for them to almost finish in the top-three after that is great.

BYU head swim coach John Brooks and head dive coach Keith Russell were each named Coach of the Meet and junior captain Jake Taylor won the men’s Swimmer of the Meet award.

Taylor won the men’s 200 back, setting a new MPSF Championship meet record with a time of 1:41.15. Haley Bertoldo won the women’s 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:56.83 while Ciera Marsh Keller finished third in 1:59.92.

Junior Stephen Richards finished second in the men’s 200-yard breaststroke in 1:58.22.

Sophomore Riley Buer finished in fourth-place in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:16.73. In the men’s 200 breast Rafael Alfaro picked up a fifth-place finish, touching the wall in 2:00.48.

The Cougars picked up fifth-place times in both the men’s and women’s 200-yard butterfly with senior captain Hayden Palmer finishing in 1:48.49 and freshman Lillian Moore in 2:02.81.

Freshman Luis Ventura swam the men’s 1,650-yard freestyle fast enough to finish fifth with a time of 15:33.37, and McKay King earned a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing in 44.97.

Taylor, Palmer, Alfaro and King combined to finish the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay in 2:57.17, fast enough for a third-place finish.

The divers will head to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to compete in the Zone E diving meet Mar. 9-11. Taylor is the only swimmer to qualify so far for the NCAA championships Mar. 26-28 in Iowa City, Iowa, with Palmer a possibility to make it as well.