BYU
BYU finished strong on the second day of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships Thursday night at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif.
“I am really proud of the performances from both teams today," BYU head coach John Brooks said. “Ellie Thornbrue and Lillian Moore had great performances for the women’s team and Jake Taylor and Payton Sorenson both broke school records in men’s events. Both teams were able to battle to get some needed points today.”
Taylor and Sorenson both broke school records, with Taylor winning the 200 individual medley and Sorenson taking the 50 free. Among a handful of highlights were Thornbrue, Moore, Alexandria Sorensen, Stephen Richards, Preston Jenkins, Connor Stirling, Sorenson and Taylor.
The preliminaries on Thursday morning featured qualifying events for the 500-yard freestyle, 200 IM and 50 free finals. BYU returned four swimmers to the 500 free championship finals, three to the 200 IM and two to the 50 free.
Thornbrue raced to a second-place finish in the women’s 500 free with a 4:51.81. Luis Ventura was the top performer in the men’s 500 free, posting a 4:30.92 for seventh.
Moore was the top finisher in the women’s 200 IM racing to a 2:03.48 for tenth place. In the men’s event, BYU took first, second and fourth, with Taylor earning first in 1:43.83, Jenkins taking second in 1:46.76 and Richards posting a 1:47.96 for fourth. Taylor’s time set a new school record.
Alexandria Sorensen was the top finisher for the Cougars in the women’s 50 free, earning fifth place with a 23.15 finish. Payton Sorenson won the men’s event and broke a BYU record, sprinting to a 19.57 for first.
In the final event of the day, a team comprised of Sorenson, Stirling, Jenkins and Taylor won the men’s 200 free relay with a 1:18.55 finish.
Kevin Dreesen and Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp led the BYU divers in their first day of action at the MPSF Diving Championships Thursday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, Calif.
“I am very happy with how the men did today,” BYU head diving coach Tyce Routson said. “They had dominating performances. This is Kevin Dreesen’s first time as a conference champion in the 1-meter event and was also Matt Denkers’ first time placing third at conference. For the women, it was a good battle against a really strong Hawaii team of divers, and Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp did a great job competing.”
In the women’s 1-meter, Tippetts-Kottcamp was the top performer for BYU, qualifying in the preliminaries with a 263.20 and then diving a 258.05 in the finals for fifth place overall. Dreesen took first in the men’s 1-meter final with a 388.75, with Denkers posting a 331.85 for third.
The MPSF Swim and Dive Championships will continue Friday, with swimming preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. PST, followed by event finals at 6 p.m. PST. Diving will begin at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center at 11 a.m. PST. Fans can follow the meet through the live stream or live results page, with live dive results also available on divemeets.com. Complete results will be posted on the website at the conclusion of the day’s events.
Pacific
In the second day of the MPSF Championships, Pacific came away with the victory in the women's 500 Free thanks to an amazing swim by Jana Burkard. The Tigers also finished second in three of the other seven swimming events in the day.
Jana Burkard put up a blazing 4:49.61 in the finals, shaving four seconds off her prelim time of 4:53.27, which was also the best in the tournament. It was the best time of the year for Burkard as well. Pacific has now won the women's 500 Free two straight years at the MPSF Championships.
Lee Ward had the best time for Pacific in the men's 500 Free with a 4:33.30 in the prelims and a 4:29.86 in the finals. Both times were the fastest for any Pacific man in the 500 Free this year as Ward came away with the consolation final victory.
In the 200 IM, Whitney Jorgensen took home a bronze with a third-place time of 2:00.91 while Curtis Klein took third for the men in the consolation final with a 1:50.83. Jorgensen's prelim time of 2:00.49 was the second-best in the prelims. Cristina Mardones also swam strong in the 200 IM, taking fourth in the prelims with a 2:01.67 and fifth in the finals with a 2:01.36.
After taking fourth in the prelims of the women's 50 Free with a 23.24, Kenna Ramey found her groove and finished second in the finals. Ramey swam a 22.91, half a second faster than Pacific's previous best this year, which was also recorded by Ramey.
For the men, the 50 Free saw a run of Tigers all sizzling. Pacific took second, third, and fourth in the 50 Free, sending five swimmers total to the eight-man finals. Yahav Shahaff took second with a 20.03, with Miles MacKenzie just on his tail at 20.12. Mitchell Ongstad came in fourth at 20.22. Casey Fleming and Dylan Toy also made the finals after swimming 20.37 and 20.52 in the prelims. Fleming's finals time was 20.44, while Toy swam a 20.76.
To finish the day, the Tigers men took second in the 200 Free Relay. The team of Shahaff, Ongstad, MacKenzie, and Fleming swam a 1:18.92, less than half a second off the lead time.
