BYU women's swim and dive come up short against UNLV

PROVO, Utah — In a hard fought contest Saturday morning on senior day, the UNLV women's swim and dive team came away with the win against the Cougars with a final score of 139-104. 

"It was a lot of fun facing the Rebels," said coach Shari Skabelund. "Both teams came into the competition tired, but they swam some amazing times. Our divers did a nice job, and our men came together and powered through for the victory. I'm grateful to work with these athletes, and we are thankful to the seniors for all they have done for the program throughout their careers." 

In a meet that consisted of 13 events for the women, the Cougars managed to win five of them in the 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard IM, 200-yard backstroke, 3-meter dive, and 1-meter dive.

The women began the meet strong, with a team of Charlotte Fie'eiki, Mackenzie Miller, Rachel Oyler and Brynn Sproul winning the 200-yard medley relay, posting a time of 1:42.97. A team of Liza Slade, Abi Furqueron, Julia Bartell and Lily Flint would also place third in the event with a time of 1:48.25, jumping out to an early 13-4 lead.

Despite a loss in the 1000-yard freestyle, new season-bests were posted by Regan Geldmacher swimming a time of 10:24.46 to come in second, as well as Kylee Conrad, posting a time of 10:58.10 and placing sixth for the event. 

Trailing 54-39 coming into the 200-yard IM, BYU's Katie McBratney-Graves posted a time of 2:05.91 to give the Cougars the outright win in the event. Sofia Pusceddu posted the next best time in the event for BYU, with a time of 2:11.86, placing sixth overall. 

After coming up short in the next two events, Sproul swam a 2:03.59 to give the Cougars the win in the 200-yard backstroke and bring the score to 93-76 in favor of the Rebels. New personal bests were posted by freshman Emma Marusakova, coming in fourth in the event with a time of 2:04.81, as well as freshman Colette Masino, swimming a time of 2:08.55 placing sixth.

The dive team had a successful day, winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. In the 3-meter dive, Alexia Jackson posted a new personal best score of 321.30 placing first in the event, with Tessa Watkins placing second, receiving a score of 315.00, also a new personal best.

In the 1-meter dive, the two would trade places, with Watkins placing first with a score of 270.08 and Jackson placing second with a score of 262.05. Hailey Johnson also placed third in the event with a score 258.83. 

"I am very optimistic with the momentum towards the Missouri Invitational and our first opportunity to get our zone cut scores on platform," said coach Tyce Routson. "I’m very pleased with the attention to details executed in practice and even performing new and tougher dives with accuracy so early in the season."

The Cougars will look to bounce back from the loss as they get ready to compete at the Mizzou Invite in Columbia, Missouri on Nov. 16-18 and the Utah Tech Invite in St. George, Utah on Nov. 17-19. Times for the events will be posted in the coming weeks, as well as information on how to watch and follow the events live.