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Ari Davis
| Posted: 5 Dec 2015 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
BYU swim wraps up action at final day of Texas Invite
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AUSTIN, Texas – Connor Stirling, Preston Jenkins, Jake Taylor and Payton Sorenson broke a school record as BYU wrapped a great performance at the Texas Invitational Thursday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
“Overall this was a really impressive meet for the team,” BYU head coach John Brooks said. “We had a lot of quality races and we are happy to be having swimmers improve every week. I was also really proud of the way the team rallied around each other on the last night of the meet to finish strong.”
Stirling, Jenkins, Taylor and Sorenson broke the school record in the men’s 400-yard free relay (2:53.88). Along with the record, a large group of BYU swimmers reached season and lifetime-bests, including Dallin Johnson, Sorenson, Stirling, Stephen Richards, Rainer Ng, Ellie Thornbrue, Hanna Skaggs and Lillian Moore. Johnson also qualified for the open-water Olympic trials with his finish in the 1650 free.
The preliminaries on Saturday morning featured qualifying events for the 200 backstroke, 100 free, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and also included the 1650 free finals. BYU returned a group of 14 swimmers to the 200 back finals, seven to the 100 free, eight to the 200 breaststroke and seven athletes to the 200 fly finals event.
Vanessa Moffatt had the top time for the Cougars in the 1650 free, placing 16th with a time of 17:20.47. In the men’s event, Johnson took 10th with a 15:26.50 finish.
In the women’s 200 back, Ashlee Spindler was the top performer for BYU, posting a 2:02.11 for 21st place. Taylor raced to a 1:40.60 finish, taking second place overall and posting one of the top times in the country.
Thornbrue recorded a 51.25 finish in the women’s 100 free to take 27th place. On the men’s side, Sorenson and Stirling finished in sixth and seventh with times of 43.55 and 44.21, respectively.
Skaggs was the top finisher for the Cougars in the women’s 200 breaststroke, clocking a 2:19.77 for 22nd. On the men’s side of the event, Richards raced to a 1:59.53 for a seventh-place finish.
In the women’s 200 fly, Moore finished with a time of 2:01.03, good enough for 14th place. Ng was the fastest BYU swimmer in the men’s event, posting a 1:48.72 for 16th.
To wrap the meet, a BYU team of Lauren Shaw Taylor, Katie Smith, Natalie Bennion and Thornbrue took 10th place with a time of 3:26.12 in the women’s 400 free relay. In the men’s event, a team comprised of Stirling, Jenkins, Taylor and Sorenson set a new school record of 2:53.88, good enough for second place.
BYU swim and dive will break from competition and return to action in the new year on January 9 against Grand Canyon in Goodyear, Arizona.
