BYU swimming and diving finished off its preseason scrimmages with some competition from past swimmers in its annual alumni meet Friday afternoon at the Richards Building Pool.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun for the swimmers to see the alumni come back, and to see what they can do in a swimsuit,\u201d BYU head coach John Brooks said. \u201cWe are grateful for all those that came back to participate. Our first meet is coming up this week, so this is a good benchmark for our current swimmers. Some of our returned missionaries are starting to get that speed back, so that\u2019s good to see for them too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with a familiar group of former BYU swimmers, assistant coach Yolanda Bates was also in the mix, competing in several different events and keeping up with the current crop of athletes.<\/p>\n
The night started out with the women\u2019s 200 yard medley relay, with the team of Ashlee Spindler, Anna Dahl, Lillian Moore and Alexandria Sorensen taking first with a time of 1:49.90. A relay team made up of Jake Taylor, Stephen Richards, Rainer Ng and Payton Sorenson won the men\u2019s side of the event, clocking a time of 1:32.47.<\/p>\n
Freshman Kelly Hatanaka got a win in the 200 individual medley, finishing the race in 2:08.24. Stephen Richards won the men\u2019s 200 IM, swimming to a 1:55.48 finish.<\/p>\n
Alexandria Sorensen took the women\u2019s 50 free, posting a 24.32 finish. Freshman Connor Stirling earned a first-place finish in the men\u2019s side of the event, finishing with a time of 21.14.<\/p>\n
In the 50 backstroke, Ashlee Spindler won the women\u2019s side of the event with a time of 27.82, while Ng took the men\u2019s side with a 23.01 finish.<\/p>\n
Ng and Spindler both repeated as winners in the 100 back event, finishing with times of 51.19 and 1:00.34, respectively.<\/p>\n
To finish off the meet, groups from both men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams competed in the 200 free relay. A team comprised of Sorensen, Alora Foliaki, Katie Smith and Ellie Thornbrue won the women\u2019s event, finishing in 1:38.60. On the men\u2019s side, Taylor, Stirling, Kent Fellows and Payton Sorenson won the relay, posting a finishing time of 1:23.26.<\/p>\n
The divers hosted a non-scored event, where current divers, swimmers and some alumni participated. Head diving coach Tyce Routson even suited up for the Cougars, teaching his divers how to mark a perfect score by example.<\/p>\n
The Cougars will travel to Colorado Mesa University next Friday to officially kick off the season in the Colorado Mesa Invite Oct. 9-10.<\/p>\n