ASU wins both duals, but Cougars win 7 events

PROVO, Utah–  Preston Jenkins of BYU won two events and four divers qualified in the NCAA zone cut, although overall, Arizona State won both the men’s and women’s duals,189-109 and 189-107, respectively.

"Overall, our team is getting faster and faster,” said head BYU coach John Brooks. “We had some nice performances by Tiare Coker in the 100-yard butterfly and Vanessa Moffatt winning the 200-yard butterfly. Riley Merrill had a close race on the 200 individual medley, Payton Sorenson performed well in the 50-yard freestyle and of course (Preston) Jenkins winning two different events was a highlight. We may not have won the meet, but we did win the last relay which was an exciting ending. We are grateful to ASU for coming, for our fans that support us, and I’m glad that our team raced well today.

Jenkins had the first BYU win of the day in the men’s 200-yard freestyle, clocking a final time of 1:40.11. In the final event of the day, Jenkins led in the first leg of the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 45.48. Teammates Jacob Rees, Roger Woods, and Payton Sorenson worked in sync with Jenkins to seal the win with a time of 3:01.36.

Moffatt, a junior from Lakewood Washington, took the lead in the women’s 200-yard butterfly event, clocking a time of 2:07. She was selected as the women's "Swimmer of the Meet" by the team captains at BYU. Roger Woods was selected as the men's "Swimmer of the Meet". 

Coker, a freshman majoring in exercise science, has been performing consistently in the 100-yard butterfly, registering 56.59 for the second time this season.

In the men’s 50-yard freestyle, Sorenson competed for the win against ASU’s Richard Bohus, succeeding with a time of 20.18. Sorenson fell to Bohus in the men’s 100-yard freestyle, the Hungarian Olympain clocking a time of 45.97 and Sorenson registering a time of 45.14. Sorenson ended the meet on a positive note with his final performance as the anchor in the men’s 400-yard freestyle, sealing the final win of the meet for BYU.

Denkers performed with the top score of 332.25 in the men’s 1-meter diving. Eric Muir followed in third place with a score of 330.20. Both Denkers and Muir qualified for the NCAA zone cut (300) in the 1-meter event.

In the men’s 3-meter event, Kevin Dreesen took a second place finish after ASU with a final score of 390.40. Denkers followed in third place with a score of 356.85. Dreesen, Denkers, and Jordan Tuckfield (320.40) qualified for the NCAA zone cut (320) in the 3-meter event. 

"I think the divers showed a lot of improvement and progress throughout this meet,” said BYU dive coach Tyce Rouston. “The divers are a lot more confident on their own boards and performing at home, so we had some really key performances, some that were the best of the season. (Matt) Denkers had an outstanding performance on the 1-meter and a solid performance on  the 3-meter. We had Matt and (Eric) Muir that did really on the 1 board and qualified for the NCAA zone cut. (Kevin) Dreesen got his cut on the 3-meter, as well as (Jordan) Tuckfield. It was an outstanding performance from the men this early in the season. Shelby Johnson performed the best in the 1 and 3 meter for the women’s dive team. She is showing to be a lot more consistent and much stronger. It was good to have a home meet for everyone and I would say it was successful."

Both the men’s and women’s teams donned pink swim caps for the meet today for breast cancer awareness month.

Coming up next, the BYU women’s swim and dive team travel to California to take on UC Davis on Friday, Oct. 28, starting at 4:00 p.m. PDT. The men are idle until Nov. 5 when both men's and women's swim and dive teams will travel to Nevada to take on UNLV.