Cougars sweep Grand Canyon in last home meet of the season

BYU vs. Grand Canyon Meet Results

PROVO, Utah -- BYU men's and women's swimming swept Grand Canyon Saturday afternoon at the Richards Building Pool in their last home meet of the season.

Senior swimmers Hayden Palmer, Michael King, Rafael Alfaro, Ciera Marsh Keller and Andrea Grant Richards were honored before the meet.

"They're all so important to us and our program," head coach John Brooks said, talking about his seniors. "Andrea and Ciera have been amazing leaders for us and have done a good job of working hard and getting better. Hayden has been a stud all four years he's been here. Rafa and Michael have done such a great job of just working hard and competing for us."

For the women it came down to the last event of the meet. Heading into the 200-yard freestyle relay, BYU led Grand Canyon 124-121, with the winner of the relay taking the meet. Keller, Alora Foliaki, Alexandria Sorensen and Richards finished in a tie with Grand Canyon for first with a time of 1:36.74. With the Cougars already up three, the first-place tie was good enough for the women to hold on to win 131.5 to 130.5.

The men’s 200-yard medley relay team picked up BYU’s first win of the meet. Rainer Ng, Michael King, McKay King and Mitchell Allphin finished in 1:30.43. Keller, Hannah Hansen, Haley Bertoldo and Foliaki finished second in the same event for the women, touching the wall in 1:46.75.

True freshman Vanessa Moffatt blew everyone away in the women’s 1,000-yard freestyle, finishing in 10:42.29. Her teammate Cheyenne McLaws finished second, touching the wall in 10:59.47. James Sorensen (9:52.17), John Morris (9:55.16) and Dallin Johnson (10:00.34) swept the men’s 1,000 free.

Junior captain Jake Taylor finished first and set a new Richards Building Pool record with a 47.99 in the men’s 100-yard backstroke.

In the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, Riley Buer (1:06.19) and Anna Dahl (1:06.34) swept the top two spots.  The men also took the top two spots in the same event as Stephen Richards finished first in 57.17 with Michael King earning second place with a time of 57.49.

The men picked up another sweep, this time in the 200-yard butterfly. Ng finished first in 1:49.90, followed by Matt Abernethy (1:54.20) and Hayden Palmer (1:57.54).

Taylor picked up his second first-place finish of the afternoon when he finished the 50-yard freestyle in 20.61.

In the women’s 100-yard freestyle Lauren Shaw Taylor finished second in 52.95 and Foliaki earned a third-place time of 53.67.

Jake Taylor again finished first, this time recording a 45.89 in the men’s 100-yard freestyle.

Buer picked up another first-place finish for the women, winning the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:22.66.  Richards also earned his second first-place finish of the meet when he won the 200 breast, touching the wall in 2:05.25.

Moffatt (5:11.32), Allison McCormick (5:18.37) and Emily Harris (5:20.07) took the top three sports in the women’s 500-yard freestyle. Not to be outdone, the men swept the 500 free with Morris finishing in 4:47.77, Johnson in 4:48.07 and Sorensen in 4:52.45.

The Cougars now gear up for the Deseret First Duel meet hosted by the University of Utah next Saturday at 11 a.m. MST.