Anna Dahl on the verge of breaking school and personal record

AUSTIN, Texas and GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado (December 2, 2016) ­– Anna Dahl came close to the school record and took 11th place out of 24 contestants in the 100 breaststroke on Friday in Austin.

“It was a solid day for our swim team,” said head BYU swim coach John Brooks. “Anna swam an excellent 100 breaststroke and we had several other swimmers who participated in the preliminaries and achieved times eligible to compete in the finals.”

Dahl qualified in the 100 breaststroke preliminaries on Friday morning with 1:01.77 and improved her time in the finals to 1:01.58. Dahl currently holds the Women’s All-Time record in the 100 breaststroke with 1:01.34.

Several other BYU women participated in the 100 breaststroke, many of them improving their personal records. Those who competed were Taylor Ballard (1:03.42), Mariah Lindsey (1:03.91), Lexi Johnson (1:04.66), Hanna Skaggs (1:05.41) and Riley Merrill (1:07.19).

Darrin Lam, a freshman from Singapore, achieved one of his personal best times in the 100 breaststroke, registering 56.12. Lam also assisted the men’s 200-yard medley relay team to finish in sixth place, along with teammates Rainer Ng, Luis Ventura and Payton Sorenson (1:28.18).  

Lauren Taylor and Ashlee Spindler competed in the top 20 of all finalists in the 100 backstroke. Taylor took 18th place with 55:14 and Spindler followed in 20th, clocking a time of 55.76.

In Mesa, the women’s 200 medley relay team took third overall with a time of 1:47.43. Participants included Sam Palmer, Mackenzie Heffernan, Lillian Moore and Alora Foliaki.

Palmer also competed in the 100 backstroke and finished in third place (57.02). She was directly followed by teammate Olivia Capocci, who swam the event in 58.63.

Kerra Bispo participated in the 100 butterfly and registered a time of 56.96, finishing in third place.

Kasdyn Raife, a freshman from Las Vegas, finished in the top four in the women’s 400 individual medley with a time of 4:38.53.

The Texas and Mesa Invitationals will conclude after the events on Saturday. The Texas Invite will begin at 9 a.m. CST, with finals taking place at 4 p.m. The Mesa Invite will follow their previous schedule, with the preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. MST and the finals starting at 5 p.m.