TUCSON -- Brandon Watson led the BYU Diving team Saturday as he finished first in the men’s 3-Meter board diving competition at the Wildcat Diving Invitational.

Friday, the first day of the competition, the women competed on the 3-meter board and the men on the 1-meter, while Saturday’s events switched as women competed on the 1-meter and men the 3-meter.

In the 3-meter prelims for the women, Dayna Christensen placed 10th with a score of 260.25 while Syrena Miskin followed her at 15th with her score of 256.10. In the consolation round, Christensen placed fifth with a final score of 267.95 while Miskin placed 7th with 262.20.

Watson finished third in the 1-meter finals with a prelim score of 332.35 and a final score of 373.55. Travis day finished eighth overall with a prelim score of 287.85 and a final of 288.90.

Sam Hatch finished first in the consolation round of the 1-meter with a score of 319.25.

On day two of the invite, Christensen placed sixth for the women in the consols of the 1-meter with a final score of 228.90.

Watson received his first place win in the 3-meter with a prelim score of 406.30 and a final score of 384.25.

Travis Day finished third in the consolation round of the 3-meter with a final score of 322.05.

The Cougars will travel back to Provo for a week-long break before facing Arkansas and Seattle University on Dec. 3 and 4.

PROVO -- After a week-long break, the BYU swim team will travel to Long Beach, Calif. for the annual Toshiba Classic Invite while the divers will head to Tucson, Ariz. for the Wildcat Diving Invite. Both teams will be facing top west coast competition starting Nov. 18 -20.

“This is always a really good meet for our swimmers,” BYU head coach Tim Powers said. “There are about 15 to 20 excellent teams that make it a very competitive and exciting meet. This meet is important for all swimmers competing because it’s an indicator of who will make conference. This gives everybody motivation to swim their absolute best.”

Last year, the men’s and women’s teams did well, with the men finishing sixth out of 14 and the women finishing fifth out of 25 teams. The team is returning quite a few swimmers who had major successes at last year’s invite.

Rachel Grant placed eighth in the 200 IM, sixth in the 400 IM, fourth in the 200 butterfly, fourth in the 800 free relay and sixth in the 400 medley relay.

Also returning for the women are swimmers Sara Jayne Baldwin who swam in the 200 free relay, 400 medley relay and 400 free relay and 100 breast. Candice Smith also returns after having placed ninth in the 100 backstroke and fifth in the 200 backstroke last year. Aleesha Miller will look to do well in the 50 free along with the 200 free relay, 400 medley relay and 400 free relay.

For the men’s team, top returners include Christian Keil who helped the team place fifth in the 200 free relay, fourth in the 400 medley relay, fifth in the 200 medley and fourth in the 400 free relay. John Kendrick competed in the 200 free relay, 800 free relay and 400 free relay as well, but he also placed eighth in the 200 free, and 14th in the 500 free. Vytenis Slenys placed 10th in the 200 IM, and seventh in the 200 breaststroke for the team.

“This meet provides not only a great opportunity for returning swimmers, but also for the freshmen,” Power said. “This is a trials finals meet which will be a new experience for them. It’s definitely a big change from high school competition.”

The highlight of last year’s diving invite was Brandon Watson’s first-place finish in the 3-meter board competition. Other retuning divers include Sam Hatch and Travis Day for the men, as well as Dayna Chritsensen and Mikenna Cloward for the women.

The Toshiba Classic will be having time trials in the morning and finals in the evening on each day. Check back to www.byucougars.com/swimming_diving for updates on the Toshiba Classic and Wildcat Diving Invitational Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.