San Diego State vs. BYU

PROVO, Utah, January 12. FOR the second time in three days the BYU women's swimming team beat another Mountain West Conference foe on Saturday. The Cougars beat the visiting Aztecs of San Diego State 136-96.

"Some of our girls swam really well today," BYU coach Stan Crump said. "In our pre-meet team meeting I explained to the girls that we wanted to try some new things today with swimmers in different events but I still wanted them to swim hard. Which they did, and I was proud of them for that."

An example of a swimmer getting a chance to compete in a race for the first time is BYU freshman Aleesha Miller. Miller has posted the fastest times this season in the 50 and 100 freestyle, but against SDSU she was given the opportunity to swim in the 500 free. The 500 free is the longest distance Miller has competed in all season, and she recorded a time of 5:33.62 in the race.

The Cougars had two dual-event winners in Natasha Menezes and diver Tawni Jones. Menezes won the longest race of the meet, the 1650 free, with a time of 17:25.80, and she also touched the wall first in the 100 free with a time of 52.54. Menezes' 100 free time is a new season-best time for her in that race.

Jones highlighted the Cougars from the diving board as she placed first in both the 1- and 3-meter boards. For the first time this season a BYU diver was awarded a score over 300 points and that came against the Aztecs as Jones was given 327.30 points for her dive on the 3-meter board. Jones also won the 1-meter competition with a score of 283.50.

"I was happy with what happened today for our divers," BYU dive coach Keith Russell said. "They did a great job. We had a few divers trying new dives today and they executed them very well."

Another impressive Cougar performance came from senior Tara Patience in the 200 IM. Patience finished three seconds ahead of the rest of the field as she recorded a time of 2:09.51. BYU also won both of the relays on the day.

The Cougar women will next be in action on Thursday Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. as the Colorado State Rams come to Provo. This event is free to the public.

Special thanks to BYU for contributing this report.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use