BYU swimmers put together for the beginning of a race throughout meet in opposition to UNLV in 2022-23 season. Joey Garrison, BYU Photograph
BYU swimmers might be diving into an even bigger pool this 12 months as members of the Large 12. Joey Garrison, BYU Photograph
Editor’s be aware: Eighth in a sequence of articles inspecting how every BYU program will stack up in opposition to its new convention foes. As we speak’s program: girls’s swimming and diving.
The BYU girls’s swimming and diving workforce has a robust custom: the Cougars have scored 16 completely different years at nationals, ending as excessive as eleventh in 1991. BYU has additionally claimed 18 convention titles, putting first or second in convention yearly from 1980-2013.
Individually, LeLei Fonoimoana Moore received a silver medal with the U.S. 4x100 medley relay workforce on the 1976 Montreal Olympics along with putting seventh within the 100-meter butterfly. She then started her BYU profession and would go on to say 11 All-America honors as a Cougar. Most not too long ago, Rachelle Kunkel positioned ninth in springboard diving on the 2004 Athens Olympics representing america.
And on the NCAA championships, Courtney Nelson received the 1990 and 1991 nationwide titles in platform diving and Vanessa Thelin received the 1994 nationwide title on the 1-meter dive.
The final dozen years, nevertheless, have been much less fruitful, with little to talk of within the postseason and just one top-two end (in 2021) at a convention championship.
Hoping to show across the Cougars as they enter the Large 12 period is Shari Skabelund, now in her third season on the helm of the ladies’s swimming workforce along with main the boys’s program. Tyce Routson, a six-time MPSF Diving Coach of the Yr winner (4 for males, two for ladies) is in his ninth 12 months teaching the divers.
The Cougars are a youthful workforce this 12 months, however nonetheless boast expertise. Final 12 months’s prime diver within the MPSF, Alexia Jackson, returns after a stellar freshman season noticed her win the convention 3-meter and platform diving titles earlier than competing at NCAA zones.
Sophomore Megan Bergstrom earned All-MPSF first-team honors within the 1,650 freestyle and was All-MPSF second workforce within the 500 freestyle final season. Junior Halli Williams (first workforce 50 freestyle, second workforce 100 freestyle) and sophomore Regan Geldmacher (first workforce 200 freestyle, second workforce 1,650 freestyle) had been additionally two-time honorees.
Different all-conference swimmers again this season embody sophomore Mackenzie Miller (100 and 200 breaststroke) and sophomore Emma Marusakova (100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke).
They’ll be joined by freshmen contributors Rachel Ballard from Colorado (freestyle sprints), Tatum Cooley from Arizona (freestyle sprints) and Kara Martinson (freestyle and backstroke) from North Carolina. Native merchandise Ellie Boyer from Springville (butterfly), Nia Vuniwai from Provo (freestyle sprints) and Annie Reichner from Provo (backstroke), are additionally new to the roster. Reicher is the oldest grandchild of former BYU males’s basketball coach Dave Rose.
Large 12 girls’s swimming and diving
Versus simply 5 Large 12 universities sponsoring males’s packages, eight sponsor girls’s swimming and diving groups: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, TCU, Texas and West Virginia.
Texas has received 11 consecutive convention titles courting again to 2013. Final 12 months, the Longhorns virtually doubled second-place Iowa State’s level whole, 1,105 to 564.5. TCU completed third, West Virginia fourth and Kansas fifth.
Houston completed out its time within the American Athletic Convention final 12 months with its seventh-straight convention title. Cincinnati positioned fifth.
Nationally, the Longhorns completed second on the 2023 NCAA championships and had two particular person nationwide champions: Large 12 Newcomer of the Yr Lydia Jacoby within the 100 breaststroke and Large 12 Swimmer of the Yr Emma Sticklen within the 200 butterfly. Each are amongst a cadre of returning All-People.
Texas additionally completed second in 2022 and has seven nationwide titles to its identify with the most recent coming in 1991.
No different Large 12 workforce has carried out a lot on the nationwide scene recently. Houston was the final workforce to attain on the NCAA meet, doing so in 2021.
How will BYU fare?
There’s no cause to doubt Texas will cruise to yet one more Large 12 championship in 2024. BYU has struggled within the MPSF and may have some rising pains within the new convention. The Cougars will end within the center to backside of the pack this 12 months, however Cougars’ younger expertise will solely preserve bettering. Whether or not they can enhance sufficient to finally problem the remainder of the Large 12 stays to be seen.
BYU swimmers might be diving into an even bigger pool this 12 months as members of the Large 12.
Joey Garrison, BYU Photograph