BYU
BYU men’s swim and dive earned its third straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Saturday night at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California. The women’s team finished the meet in fourth place overall.
"I am extremely proud of our entire team," BYU head coach John Brooks said. "The men's team did great, and the women's team really stepped it up and did a great job today. We had athletes step up in each event and really battle. I was also really impressed with all of the divers' performances at the championship. Kevin Dreesen did an amazing job in all of his events. I'm just really proud of our team."
The men’s team ran away with its third straight MPSF title, posting a score of 862. The women’s team ended the meet with a total score of 507. Highlights from the day included Vanessa Moffatt, Dallin Johnson, Kelly Hatanaka, Jake Taylor, Preston Jenkins, Payton Sorenson, Anna Dahl, Stephen Richards, Lillian Moore and Luis Ventura. Sorenson broke a school and MPSF Championship record in the 100 free and Stirling, Taylor, Jenkins and Sorenson also broke another MPSF Championship record in the 400 free relay.
The preliminaries on Saturday morning featured qualifying events for the 200-yard backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly. BYU returned five swimmers to the 200 back championship finals, two to the 100 free, four to the 200 breaststroke and three to the 200 fly championship finals.
In the women’s 1650 free, Moffatt was the top performer for BYU, posting a 16:52.47. On the men’s side of the event, Johnson took home the win with a 15:29.94.
Hatanaka led the BYU women in the 200 back, earning fifth place with a 2:00.87 finish. Taylor and Jenkins took first and second in the men’s event with times of 1:40.96 and 1:43.75, respectively.
Sorenson sprinted to a 42.94 for first place, breaking a school record and an MPSF Championship record in the 100 free.
In the women’s 200 breaststroke, Dahl earned a 2:15.32, good enough for third place. On the men’s side, Richards took first place in 1:58.01.
Moore posted a 2:01.13 in the women’s 200 fly, good enough for third in the event. Ventura earned a third-place finish in the men’s event with a time of 1:47.69.
In the last event of the championship, a team of Ellie Thornbrue, Natalie Bennion, Katie Smith and Lauren Shaw Taylor took sixth in the 400 free relay with a 3:26.14. The men’s relay team of Taylor, Jenkins, Connor Stirling and Sorenson shattered an MPSF Championship meet record, taking first place with a 2:53.11.
Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp and Kevin Dreesen both registered second-place finishes on platform as BYU dive wrapped a successful week at the MPSF Diving Championships Saturday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California.
In the women’s platform event, Tippetts-Kottcamp dove to a 239.2, good enough for second overall in a crowded competition.
Dreesen was the top performer on the men’s side, posting a second-place finish with a score of 340.50.
BYU swim will see its next action as a select group of swimmers travel to compete in the American Short Course Championships in Austin, Texas, March 3-5. Qualifying divers will compete next in the Zone E Diving Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, on March 9-11.
Pacific
The Pacific Tigers wrapped up the MPSF Championships, taking second in three different events and setting a new school record in the men's 400 Free Relay and the men's 200 Breast. Pacific also broke school records in the men's 100 Breast, the women's 100 Fly, and the men's 800 Free Relay earlier at the tournament.
The team of Dylan Toy, Yahav Shahaff, Georan Meendering, and Miles MacKenzie swam a 2:55.15 in the 400 Free Relay to top the previous school record. That group finished second to BYU in the finals despite fielding just one senior in Meendering. Shahaff and Toy are both freshmen, while MacKenzie is a sophomore.
Shahaff, who broke the school record in the 100 Breast earlier this weekend, took second in the 200 Breast with a 1:58.54. That time bested the previous high mark by any Pacific swimmer of 1:59.21, set by Filip Wronski in 2003.
MacKenzie also excelled outside the relays. The sophomore swam a 44.45 in the 100 Free finals after swimming a 44.21 in the prelims. MacKenzie finished fourth in the finals.
Jana Burkard broke the 17-minute mark for the first time this season in the 1650 Free. Burkard swam a 16:46.68, a time that was almost 20 seconds better than the previous season-high by a Tiger.
In the 200 Back, Brandon Presswood and Curtis Klein put up the best times for the men while Cristina Mardones took fourth for the women. Presswood swam a 1:46.85 in the finals, just ahead of Klein's fifth-place 1:47.12. Mardones' time was 1:59.73, less than half a second behind third place.
The women took fourth in the 400 Free Relay with a 3:23.83. That team consisted of Vaiva Gimbutyte, Meredith Lillie, Whitney Jorgensen, and Kenna Ramey.
