Men Finish Second, Women Fourth at Speedo Cup

PROVO -- The BYU men's swimming team swam to a second place finish at the annual Speedo Cup behind No. 1 Stanford with 1055.5 points. The women's squad finished in fourth place in a field of 19 universities with 682 points, respectively.

Olympian Gary Tan had an excellent weekend swimming to a victory in the 200 backstroke with at time of 148.11. Tan also finished third in the 200 IM with a time of 1:50.74.

Christopher Johnson place second in the 100 back, while freshman Saul Stephens finished fourth and John Malfatt placed tenth. Johnson finished eighth in the 100 back while Tan placed ninth.

Junior Jeffrey Mason swam victorious the 100 free with a first-place time of 45.66. Mason placed third in the 50 free with a time of 20.50. Mason also finished fifth in the 200 free.

The 50 free also saw Michael Mullen finished fifth, brother Kurt seventh, and Parker ninth. Also in the 100 free finals, Kurt Mullen finished second ahead of brother Michael in fourth while Brent Park finished sixth.

The men's 400-free relay team finished first with a time of 3:02.06. The 200-free relay team of Mason, the Mullen brothers, and Parker finished second with a time of 1:21.41. The 800-free squad also finished second with a time of 6:44.07. The 400-medley relay of Johnson, William Betz, Tan, and Mason finished fourth while the 200-medley team finished fifth.

In distance, Randy Belliston finished sixth in the mile swim and eighth in the 500 free. Sophomore Terrance Lim finished ninth in the mile, or 1650 free. In the breaststroke, Christian Armstrong finished eight in the 200 while Adam Ware finished tenth in the 100.

"I felt our team swam solid," said men's head swim coach Tim Powers. "I was pleased with the victory of our relay team and the performances of juniors Tan and Mason."

On the women's side, All-American Cortnee Adams won the 100 free with a time of 50.59. Adams, a junior, had two two second-place finishes in the 50 free with a time of 23.67 and in the 200 free at 1:50.75.

Junior Heidi Leitz finished fifth in the 50 and 100 free, and ninth in the 100 butterfly. Freshman Nichole Burrows placed fifth in the 100 back and ninth in the 200 back.

The Cougar's strongest event for the women, the breaststroke, saw Nikki Tadlock swim well in the 100 finals at fifth place. Teammates Amanda Grant and Tamber Covington finished sixth and eighth, respectively. Sophomore Covington placed fifth in the 200 breast while Grant finished seventh.

The women's 200-free relay team of Adams, Leitz, Melissa Busby, and Burrows finished second with a time of 1:35.23. The 400-free relay squad finished second with a time of 3:29.36. The 200 and 400-medley relay team of Burrows, Amanda Grant, Leitz, and Adams finished third.

The three-day event will be the last swimming competition for both teams for the year 2001. The men's team will train in Hawaii over the holidays in preparation to finish the remainder of the 2001-02 season. The swimmers will resume the season against Washington on January, 11, 2002.