BYU
Three school records fell on the third day of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships as BYU dominated at East Los Angeles College Friday night.
“We’re trying to build off today and finish strong tomorrow,” BYU head swim coach John Brooks said. “It was such an amazing day for both our guys and girls and we just want to finish this thing strong.”
Junior captain Jake Taylor set a new school record in the men’s 100-yard backstroke, finishing first with a time of 45.53. The time is a new MPSF Championship meet record and also the second fastest 100 back time in the country this season.
Taylor also led off the men’s 400-yard medley relay team that finished in 3:12.16. Along with Taylor, Levi Jensen, Rainer Ng and McKay King finished in first place and set a new school record.
The women’s 400 medley relay team earned a solid second-place finish. Haley Bertoldo, Anna Dahl, Lillian Moore and Ciera Marsh Keller combined to finish in 3:41.39, less than half a second off the pace of UC Davis’ winning relay team.
Jensen finished fourth in the men’s 100-yard breast, but was still fast enough to set a new school record in the event. Dahl finished third in the women’s 100 breast, recording a time of 1:02.42.
BYU pulled off the sweep in the men’s 400-yard individual medley as senior captain Hayden Palmer finished first (3:47.52), followed by Rafael Alfaro (3:49.70) and Stephen Richards (3:50.51).
Bertoldo won the women’s 100 back with a time of 53.96 and finished second in the women’s 100-yard butterfly touching the wall in 53.87.
The men’s team is solidly in first place with a score of 567.5, ahead of second-place Hawaii who is at 504. The women are up to 295.5 points, good enough for fifth place and just 4.5 points behind Pacific.
Pacific
Looking to add aditional titles at the 2015 MPSF Championships, the Tigers just missed out despite record-setting performances in the pool. The championships concluded day three of the four-day event on Friday, Feb. 20 as teams swam 12 events between the men and the women.
Trying to add to the hardware she picked up the day prior, sophomore Margaux Verger Gourson set a school record in the 200 Free and posted an NCAA 'B' Cut time of 1:47.52 only to come up just short of a title. Verger Gourson broke the previous record of 1:47.86 set by all-american Shannon Caralano in 2001 with her swim on Friday night. Despite her best efforts, the sophomore was outtouched by Hawaii's Jasmi Alkhaldi, who set an MPSF Championship record with her time of 1:46.70.
Junior Haley Preston put out a solid showing in the 100 Back just a few events later as she took a fourth place finish in the finals with an NCAA 'B' cut time of 54.75. Her time was the best of the season for the Tigers and finished under a second behind the all-time record held by Sarah Marshall.
For the men, sophomore Curtis Klein posted a sixth place finish in the 100 Back as he recorded a season-best time of 50.05 in the event finals. Earlier, freshman Stewart Harrison has qualified for his first finals as the first-year Tiger raced to an eighth place finish in the 100 Fly. Harrison's time of 49.44 was a personal and season-best finish.
The Tigers close out action at championships on Saturday, Feb. 21 when they swim the 1650 Free, 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, and 400 Free Relay. Prelims kick off at 10:00 am while the finals start at 4:00 pm.
