Second-Place Finishes for Both Men and Women at Nike Cup

LONG BEACH -- After the conclusion of the Nike Cup on Saturday night, both the BYU men's and women's teams posted second-place finishes. The Cougar men finished with 1002 points which was second only to No. 3 Stanford, while the women swimmers tallied 887.5 points to finish second to No. 14 UCLA.

"The guys looked very good tonight," BYU men's coach Tim Powers said. "Our team has been swimming well on very short rest, which I am very pleased with."

In the longest race at the Nike Cup, the 1650 freestyle, the Cougars saw their most dominating performance. BYU senior Travis Price took first place with a time of 15:36.91, seven seconds faster than anyone else in the race. But he was not alone among the event's top finishers as fellow teammates Zach Anderson, Sammy Bates and Neal Hamilton touched the wall in fourth, sixth and seventh places, respectively.

The BYU women also did very well in the 1650 free. Cougar Natasha Menezes finished in third place as she swam the race in 17:07.02 while her sister Michelle placed in seventh with a time of 17:15.13. Celliegh McHenry also had a respectable finish as she came in 11th with a time of 17:26.76.

"The team finished the meet very well," BYU women's coach Stan Crump said. "Although we did not win as a team like we did last year, the competition has been much higher this year, and I think that has helped our team's performance overall."

Cougar senior Jamie Bloom also helped boost her team's score with a third-place finish in the 200 breast as she set a new season-best time with 2:18.49. Another individual event that saw a notable performance by the Cougars was the 200 backstroke. The brother tandem of John and Jeff Ferrell finished in seventh and eighth, with times of 1:50.82 and 1:53.77, respectively.

Freshman Rachel Grant had another great swim as she placed in second in the 200 butterfly, improving on her previous season-best mark with a time of 2:00.74. Jeffrey Su also set a new season-best mark in the 200 fly as he touched the wall in sixth place with a time of 1:50.12.

Both the Cougar men and women swimmers will next be in action on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 as they travel to take part in the US National Meet in Atlanta.

Click here to view results from Friday.

Final Team Scores

Women

Team Points

1. UCLA 1498.5

2. Brigham Young 887.5

3. Pacific 795

4. Rice 727

5. San Jose State 558

6. UC Irvine 523

7. UC San Diego 439

8. New Mexico 379.5

9. Pepperdine 310

10. Loyola Marymount 249

11. Air Force 223.5

12. San Diego 223

13. Cal State Northridge 195

14. UC Santa Cruz 184

15. Alaska 162.5

16. Cal Lutheran 118

17. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 86

18. Fresno Pacific 68

19. Grand Canyon 56

20. Soka 22

20. La Verne 22

22. Occidental 14

Men

Team Points

1. Stanford 1965

2. Brigham Young 1002

3. Air Force 847

4. Pacific 678

5. UC Davis 517

6. UC Irvine 449

7. Cal Baptist 377

8. UC San Diego 360

9. Cal State Northridge 288

10. UC Santa Cruz 254

11. Fresno Pacific 153

12. Cal Lutheran 152

13. Grand Canyon 146

14. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 96

15. Occidental 24

16. La Verne 22

17. Soka 7