Up And Down Start To 2012

PROVO, Utah – A very close scoring meet resulted in a split victory for BYU as the men’s swim and dive team beat Arizona State, 132-111, while the women’s team fell five points short at 122-117.

“I wasn’t sure how we would perform after six weeks of no competition, but we swam really well and battled hard,” BYU head coach Tim Powers said. “If we would have won a couple touch-out races, it would have been different for the women. However, I though we competed well.”

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The 200-medley relay started the meet with the BYU women’s team of Hailey Campbell, Kim Welch, Kassandra Bispo and Taryn Toolson touching in at first place with a time of 1:43.84.

The men followed in the same event, but came in at second with a time of 1:33.09.

Amy Xu finished third for the women in the 1000 free with a time of 10:37.15, while Samuel Bates grabbed fourth for the men at 10:02.76.

In the next event, Alia Welsh placed second and Alexandra Dodds placed third in the 200 free with times of 1:52.92 and 1:53.67, respectively.

Stott Bushnell and Seth Russell swam neck-and-neck in the 200 free. Bushnell recorded a time of 1:42.79 and Russell touched in right behind him at 1:42.91 for first and second place.

In the women’s heat of the 50 free, sprinter Taryn Toolson recorded a time of 23.53 for the first place win. For the men, Jordan Fletcher and Daniel Bates finished in second and third place with times of 21.15 and 21.39.

Rafael Alfaro grabbed first place with 1:55.42, just ahead of Brady Wells at 1:57.72 in the 200 IM.

Kim Welch touched in at 2:04.30 for a second place finish in the 200 fly. In the men’s heat, Gary Arthur and David Armstrong swam a close race for first and second with Arthur gaining a time of 1:54.21 and Armstrong at 1:54.23.

In the 100 free, Hailey Campell took second for BYU with her time of 52.44, while Beaman grabbed the first place win for the men’s heat with his time of 46.32.

Touching in at 2:02.39, Candice Smith grabbed first place in the women’s heat of the 200 backstroke.

In the 200 breaststroke, Londyn Clawson recorded a time of 2:21.30 for a third place finish while Andrew Rutherfurd and Alfaro gained a 1-2 sweep with times of 2:06.90 and 2:09.18.

The 200-free relay concluded the meet with the women’s team of Toolson, Welch, Campbell and Andrea Grant finishing in first place with a time of 1:34.76.

The men’s 200-free relay team of Fletcher, Daniel Bates, Beaman and Ryan Krause also finished first with their time of 1:22.87.

On the boards, Brandon Watson faced some competition against ASU’s Constantin Blaha, a fellow All-American. While Watson was able to score highest in the 1-meter with 375.98, he came up just short to Blaha in the 3-meter with a score of 401.93.

For the women, Dayna Christensen swept both boards, gaining a first place win in 3-meter with 298.20 and a 1-meter score of 288.53.

Up next, the Cougars will travel to Colorado on Jan. 13th for a match up against Air Force.