Cougars have Great Early Season Showing at Don Reddish Relays

SALT LAKE -- Some great team performances helped both the Cougar men and women swim teams propel themselves to victories in the Don Reddish Relays against Utah on Friday night at the Ute Natatorium. In the un-scored event, the Cougar women swept the Utes winning all 12 events and the men won all but one of their 12 events.

"We swam very well tonight," BYU women's head coach Stan Crump said. "Everyone was very consistent. It is always tough to judge how the rest of the season will turn out after just one event but after tonight I feel we are right on schedule for where we eventually want to be this year."

The Reddish Relays consisted of 12 relay events, only five of which are relays that are apart of the typical dual-meet format. An example of one of the unorthodox events that this meet consisted of was the 3x100 breast. The only event that the BYU men did not win was the 3x100 back.

Although every event on the evening was a team event there were numerous individual performances that stood out for the Cougars. One was when freshman Aleesha Miller leads off the 4x50 relay with a time of 23.58, which is only a second off of the BYU women's team best 50 free time of all last year. On the men's side one individual performance that made waves was Jeffrey Su's single leg of the 3x100 fly with a time of 49.70-- a personal best for him.

"There are places where we can still improve," BYU men's head coach Tim Powers said. "We also had some surprises by some of our guys. Overall is was a good team effort that makes us feel good."

The BYU women swim team will get there next chance at action tomorrow, Saturday, at 12 p.m. against the University of New Mexico at the Ute Natatorium in Salt Lake City again. Then both the men and women Cougar teams will be back at home on Friday Oct. 19th in the Blue/White Meet in Provo at the Richards Building Pool.

PROVO -- For the first competition of the year the Cougar men's and women's swim teams travel to Salt Lake City to participate in the Don Reddish Relays on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Ute Natatorium. The women will then follow up on Saturday with a dual meet against New Mexico at 12 p.m. That meet will also be held in Salt Lake.

"This event will give us a chance to find out how our team is coming along in training," BYU men's head coach Tim Powers said. "That is especially true for our new guys. Many of them are getting a taste of competition at a level they have never seen before."

The Reddish Relays consist of 12 relays, many of which are non-traditional like the 4x100 IM. The five regular dual-meet relays will also be tested as both teams will see their first action away from their own team. This is an un-scored meet that only BYU and Utah will take part in.

On Saturday the pre-season MWC favorite BYU women team will have its first dual meet of the season versus the University of New Mexico.

"We need to take this dual meet seriously because they are definitely better than last year and since this is so early in our season we don't know exactly what to expect from our own team," BYU women's head coach Stan Crump. "This weekend will be a great opportunity for our us to get out of the training pool and into the competition pool."

The Cougar women are coming off a Mountain West Conference Championship season and will be lead by co-captains Angela Goodson-Price and Angela Nelson. The BYU men have been picked to finish second this year in the pre-season polls.

The Utah women are coming off an impressive 2006-07 dual-meet record of 10-0 and they finished second to BYU in the MWC Championship, while the Ute men finished fourth at end of the year conference tournament. The Lobo women finished in seventh place last season at the MWC Championship.

The Cougar men and women will both see their next action on Oct. 19th at the Richards Building Pool as they compete in the Blue/White Meet at 6 p.m.