Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center
1900 Red River St. Austin TX 78712
AUSTIN, Texas – Senior Shawn Western recorded a time of 15:50.42 in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle, dropping more than 10 seconds off his seed time during the final day of the Texas Invite.
“We had a great finish to the meet today,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “The highlights were Shawn Western’s mile, the relays, along with all those who swam in the finals. This has been a challenging year and this meet had some ups and downs. I am proud of those who continue to have positive attitudes.”
Senior Payton Sorenson tied for ninth place in the men’s 100-yard freestyle prelims with Olympian Townley Haas with a time of 43.45. Sorenson competed in the B Finals earning a 50-spilt of 19.58.
A team of Sorenson, Preston Jenkins, Sherif Aboumandour and Kunmi Ogunfeibo earned 12th in the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:57.52. Sorenson led off posting a split of 42.88, followed by Jenkins with a split of 43.52. Aboumandour recorded a split time of 46.31 in the third leg, while Ogunfeibo anchored with a split time of 44.81.
In the prelims of the men’s 200-yard backstroke, Jenkins placed 15th with a time of 1:44.42. Junior Ogunfeibo also qualified with a time of 1:47.07. In the finals, Jenkins recorded a time of 1:49.78 for eighth place in the B Finals, while Ogunfeibo posted a time of 1:46.35 for sixth place in the D Finals.
For the women’s 200-yard back, Haley Bertoldo dropped eight seconds off her seed for the Invite qualifying for finals with a time of 2:02.01. In the finals, she took off two more seconds, taking fifth place in the C Finals with a time of 2:00.98. Emma Richards Lythgoe also qualified for finals with a 2:02.01 time in prelims and a 2:00.98 time for sixth place in the D Finals.
Freshman Brad Prolo qualified for finals earning 15th place in the prelims of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:59.92. In finals, Prolo posted a time of 2:00.07 for seventh place in the D Finals.
In the women’s 200-yard breaststroke, freshman Alexa Walters and Taylor Ballard both qualified for finals with times of 2:23.49 and 2:25.82, respectively. In the D Finals, Ballard posted a time of 2:20.92 for fourth place while Walters recorded a time of 2:22.88 for eighth.
Three Cougars posted a time qualifying for the 200-yard butterfly. Senior Vanessa Moffatt swam a time of 2:03.10 in the women’s prelims while freshman Brad Prolo and Nathan Rogersrecorded times of 1:49.06 and 1:52.10, respectively. In finals, Moffatt posted a time of 2:03.48 for seventh place in the D Finals and Rogers earned fifth place in the D Finals with a time of 1:52.37.
This concludes the Cougars fall season with the winter season set to begin on Jan. 13 at Grand Canyon University. The swim and dive team will also travel to Puerto Rico over the Christmas Break for training camp.
PROVO, Utah – A select group of the BYU swim team will travel to compete in the Texas Invitational, held Nov. 29- Dec. 2 in Austin, Texas.
“We are looking forward to a great week,” BYU head swim coach John Brooks said. “We have swum well in the past at this invite so we are expecting great results this week.”
The annual Texas Invitational, hosted by No. 9 Texas, is a four-day meet at the University of Texas. The Cougars men and women's swim team will compete against the Longhorns, Arizona, USC, Wisconsin, Harvard, Northern Arizona, Oklahoma Baptist, TCU and UNLV. In addition, the men’s team will compete against Arizona State and Stanford and the women will compete against UCLA and Rutgers.
Many of BYU’s top swimmers will compete in the meet; however, the invite will not be a team-scored competition and will not include diving. The Cougars' dive team traveled to the UT Diving Invitation two weeks ago where three BYU divers recorded zone cuts.
This invite gives BYU a chance to compete against many NCAA Top-25 teams. Senior captain Payton Sorenson is currently seeded 10th in the 50-yard free and 12th in the 100-yard freestyle while another senior captain, Preston Jenkins, is seeded at the invite at 14th in the 200-yard IM and 10th in the 200-yard backstroke. Junior Taylor Ballard is also seeded at 12th in the women’s 200-yard breast stroke.
The Texas Invite kicks off Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 6 p.m. CST at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. The invite continues the following three days with prelim events every morning beginning at 10 a.m. CST, and final and relay events starting at 6 p.m. CST each evening. Specific event times can be found on the Texas Invitational Information site. Live results can be found on the MeetMobile app and on the BYU swim and dive schedule page.