Cougars Come Close, Record First Loss

SEATTLE -- On their first meet back from Christmas vacation the men's swimming team came close to sustaining an undefeated record on the season. -But the University of Washington proved strong and held out to defeat BYU by a slim margin of five points, the result of the 400 medley relay where the Cougars trailed by .5 seconds, pushing the Cougars to their first loss on the season and a 6-1 record.

"We had our hardest training week of the year prior to this meet," said Coach Tim Powers. "The guys were definitely tired."

Although the exhausted Cougars still competed, with Travis Price taking first in the 200 free with a time of 1:41.91 and Brett Allen taking the 50 and 100 free with times of 20.75 and 46.51, respectively. Jeffrey Su brought in points for the Cougars with a first place in the 200 butterfly and a time of 1:53.18. The 400-relay team, consisting of Su, Jorge Azevedo, Chris Patience and Mark Chay also brought in a win for the Cougars at 3:06.37, but not enough to give BYU the lead.

"We'll be back to normal training next week and we'll be a little stronger," said Powers.

The swimming team will open Mountain West competition for the new Year at home against TCU Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Richard's Building pool.