The women's swimming and diving team started their season off on the right foot by posting wins over San Diego State (169-55), Northern Arizona (154-91) and New Mexico (137-106) on Thursday night. The Cougars captured seven first place finishes while dominating the competition throughout.

Sophomore Brittany Davis continued her successes from last year by posting two individual wins in the 200 and 500 free.

Junior Natasha Schlup, First-team All-MWC in the 200 back last year, swam to victory in the same event to post her first individual win of the season.

New comers for the Cougars overcame jitters that they may have had in their first collegiate meet. Freshman Jamie Bloom claimed a victory in the 200 breast, an event that head coach Stan Crump worried his women would be weaker in this year. And freshman U-nice Chan, from Singapore, posted wins in the 1000 free and 200 fly.

"I really think we swam well tonight," Crump said. The girls on the team looked at him in disbelief when he wondered to himself out loud if he wasn't training them hard enough after watching their performance in the pool. "We swam really competitively and we're looking forward to swimming hard this weekend at the Invitational."

The women will remain in Albuquerque for Friday and Saturday for the Annual Lobo Invitational with SDSU, UNM, NAU and New Mexico State being added to the mix.

For complete stats click on the following link: UNM dual meet results

The BYU women's swimming team will begin their quest to recapture the Mountain West Conference championship when the travel the Albuquerque today to face MWC rivals New Mexico and San Diego State. The Cougars will also swim against Northern Arizona and will have the chance to capture three wins on the season.

The meet will be the first regular season dual meet for the team and will be followed by the two-day Lobo Invitational which will add New Mexico State to the mix.

The Cougars won both meetings with the Lobos and Aztecs last year and will look to repeat those results. BYU tied the University of Utah last week in the final preparation meet of the season.

The Aztecs are coming off a win against the Air Force Academy on Wednesday while the Lobos placed fourth in the Early Bird Invite, Oct. 23 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The dual meet is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. tonight with the invitational being spread out over Friday and Saturday.