Women Swimmers Ready to Jump in Water Again

PROVO -- The BYU women's swim and dive team looks to improve on its perfect 5-0 Mountain West Conference record as the Cougars will travel to take on Air Force and Wyoming this week. BYU will take on the Falcons on Thursday at 6 p.m. and the Cowgirls at 12 p.m. on Saturday.

"Our team is doing well considering this part of the season if really the toughest on our team physically," BYU coach Stan Crump said. "With the amount of meets we are having each week, it is beginning to wear on our team but things are coming together nicely for our end-of-the-season push toward the conference championships."

The Falcons are still winless in their five MWC meets but the Cowgirls are 3-1 with their only lose coming against the MWC second-place UNLV squad. The Cougars beat both Air Force and Wyoming last season by at least 70 points in each meet in Provo.

The BYU women swim and dive team has a good mix of upperclassmen leaders and strong freshman that have highlighted its unblemished MWC record. Seniors Jamie Bloom and Tara Patience both have record BYU season top-times in their respective events. Bloom leads the way in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke races with times of 1:04.33 and 2:06.72, respectively, while Patience has posted a team-best time of 2:06.72 for the Cougars in the 200 backstroke.

A trio of Cougar freshman has also helped give a boost to their team this season. Sara Jayne Christiansen, Rachel Grant and Aleesha Miller have all posted BYU season-best times so far this year. Christiansen in the charge in the 100 back (59.31), while Miller has dominated the sprint freestyle distances for BYU with times of 23.50 in the 50 free and 51.41 in the 100 free.

Grant has posted MWC season top-times in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Grant's time of 2:00.74 is the best conference time in the 200 fly, while her time of 4:22.05 in the 400 IM is tops to this point of the season in the MWC.

Air Force is led by junior Jane Hwang who place second in the 100 and 200 free and the 200 IM in the Falcons meet against UNLV last week, while Wyoming will look to junior Aimee Stinson who broke the Wyoming school record in the 1000 free with a time of 10:16.40 in her team's last outing.