BYU Completes Season Sweep of Utah; Crump wins 150th
PROVO -- Completing a regular season sweep, the BYU men's and women's swimming and diving teams beat Utah Friday, 148.5-75.5 and 163-61, respectively.
The BYU women's effort was highlighted by the performance of junior Jennifer Tasker. After breaking the BYU pool record in the 100 breast by one-hundredth of a second last weekend, Tasker came back to beat her own week-old record with a time of 1:04.54. Tasker also broke her own high-altitude record in the event.
Senior Hanalee Hawkins concluded her final regular season with two individual victories. Jann Pickens and Valynn Woolley, also seniors, won races as well.
The meet was also a landmark one for head coach Stan Crump, who in his 19th season at BYU got his 150th career win. Crump's career record now stands at 150-40-1 (.787).
"It would have been fine for it to happen today, it would have been fine to happen another day," Crump said. "I just feel really good for the girls right now. We swam very well and are setting ourselves up to swim very fast at the conference championships."
The men had a successful outing as well, led by the stellar performances of junior All-American Arunas Savickas. Savickas won both the 200 and 500 free, as well as leading the 200 medley relay team to victory. With altitude considerations factored in, Savickas' time of 4:28.65 was an NCAA-qualifying time. His next competitor, teammate Alex Denke, was over 19 seconds behind.
Swimming in his final regular season meet, senior John Lowry also captured a win in the 100 breast. BYU's Jay Buys and Gary Tan won individual races as well.
"We swam well tonight," said men's head coach Tim Powers. "We're right about where I expect us to be at this time. They're starting to pick up some speed."
In the first day of the BYU diving invitational, the Cougars also dominated, with Rachelle Smith Kunkel taking the 1-meter diving event and fellow Cougar, freshman Scott Randall, claiming the men's 3-meter event. BYU's Anna Tutunnikova and Aaron Russell were runners-up in the events.
The divers will compete again Saturday before joining the swimmers in training for the Mountain West Conference championships, which begin Feb. 16 in Oklahoma City.
