BYU campus briefs

SWIMMING/DIVING: After the first day at the men's swimming and diving NCAA National Championships, BYU's Brandon Watson earned 12 points for BYU to place them 21st in the nation at Columbus, Ohio.

Watson, a sophomore All-American, earned a seventh-place finish on the 1-meter board with a preliminary score of 370.20 and a final score of 376.90.

Watson will compete on the 3-meter board today, with the option to compete on the 5-meter platform following competition. The NCAA has granted Watson permission to compete on the platform if desired because of the 24-hour delayed start of the national championships.

TRACK AND FIELD: Richard Nelson recorded the fastest 3,000-meter steeplechase time in the NCAA this season, placing first among collegiate competitors with a time of 8:46.91 at the Stanford University Invitational on Friday at Palo Alto, Calif.

Nelson's time is his second-best ever, leading a strong field of Cougars who hold four of the top five times in the nation.

"We had some good things," said BYU head coach Mark Robison. "We performed well, so I was very pleased. Hopefully, tomorrow we can be able to improve on it."

Josh Adams set a time of 9:00.93 in the steeple, a new personal best, while Ryan Merriman recorded a 9:00.40 and Reagan Frey finished in 9:19.47. Former Cougar and national champion Kyle Perry also competed, finishing second overall in 8:38.38 while running for New Balance.

In the javelin, Chris Reno competed for the first time in over four years after an LDS mission and a redshirt last season. Reno took second with a long throw of 69.92 meters while Blaine Baker placed fourth at 67.98 meters, giving BYU three of the top six marks in the West Region and three of the top 10 javelin marks in all of Division I with Sean Richardson's mark set last weekend.

"We're going about as good we hoped and progressing as we hoped," Robison said. "Hopefully we can even get some surprises and do even better."

Aaron Powell finished in third place in the long jump finals, recording a distance of 7.11 meters. Phillip Bettis finished two spots behind Powell for fifth with a mark of 6.92 meters, a personal best, while Kyle Mills jumped 6.73 meters.

Competing in both hurdle events, Bryan Payne finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.95 and also qualified for the finals in the 110-meter hurdles after winning his heat in 14.98 seconds.

Kevin Ahlstrom added a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles at 52.86 while Sean Adams placed 10th and Lance Walker took 13th place.