Cougar Divers Head to USC for Diving Invitational
The men's and women's diving teams will travel to California Thursday, Friday and Saturday to compete in the USC Diving Invitational. BYU's male swimmers will travel to Washington Friday and Saturday, while the female swimmers are off this weekend.
Last Weekend
The men and women were swept by conference rival UNLV Friday in Las Vegas. The men's meet came down to the final relay, while the women suffered one-sided losses to UNLV and University of Nevada-Reno in a double dual meet. Junior Mary Duffin won the 200 IM for the women, the team's sole first place finisher. For the men, freshman Gary Tan had an outstanding meet, winning both the 200 back and 200 IM with conference best times, while junior Arunas Savickas captured the 200 free event.
Men Divers to Watch
Aaron Russell, Freshman: Russell has had two strong showings in both dual meets this season, his first competitions in over two years due to an LDS mission. Russell finished second on both 1M and 3M boards against Utah and took first and second on the 1M and 3M boards, respectively, against UNLV.
Viraj Patil, Sophomore: Patil, the 1999 platform champion, took the 3M event against Utah and placed second on the 1M last weekend in Las Vegas.
Scott Randall, Freshman: After finishing third on the 3M against Utah in his first-ever collegiate meet, Randall stormed to a first-place finish in the event against UNLV. His score of 260.45 was over 20 points higher than the runner-up in the event.
Women Divers to Watch
Rachelle Smith, Senior: Smith finished second in the 1M event against UNLV, just three points behind UNR's Lang Rao, and was the conference diver of the week last week with a first-place finish on the 3M board against Utah.
Anna Tutunnikova, Junior: A Russian transfer student, Tutunnikova finished second behind Smith on the 3M against Utah and was third in the event against UNLV, the highest BYU finisher in the event.
Quote from diving coach Keith Russell:
"We're a relatively new team, and we may not necessarily dominate, but I do expect us to be a presence. I expect us to have a very good competition."
