BYU campus briefs

SWIMMING AND DIVING: In the closest dual meet of the season, the BYU women's swimming team improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Mountain West Conference after defeating Colorado State 189.5-110.5 on Friday at Provo.

"I was pleased that in 32 events in 24 hours we swam well," BYU head coach Tim Powers said. "Colorado State swam well, they are a deep team, but we were able to come out on top in a lot of events. We took the risk of putting people in events that they don't normally swim and they did well."

Leading the Cougars to victory was senior Natasha Menezes, who found wins in both the 1,000 free and 500 freestyle, while junior Rachel Grant also tallied two wins in the 100 and 200 butterfly and Sara Jayne Christiansen Baldwin chalked up wins in the 50 freestyle and the 200 individual medley.

Starting off the meet with a strong win, the 200 medley relay team of Candice Smith, Baldwin, Kirsty Ferrell and Aleesha Miller swam neck and neck with CSU, out-touching them at the last second to win the event with a time of 1:45.72.

Pulling two body lengths ahead of second place in the 1,000 freestyle at lap 15 was senior Menezes, who went on to win the event by five seconds with a time of 10:22.89.

Swimming back-to-back events was Menezes, who placed third in the 200 freestyle after just getting out of the water a minute earlier (1:55.18). Her sister, Michelle Menezes, was ahead of the pack for most of the race, barely touching in second behind CSU's Gisella Cianci. Menezes clocked in at 1:53.95, while Cianci won at 1:53.71.

Smith represented the Cougars in the 100 backstroke, finishing second to Breann Fuller of CSU, who had a near-perfect start off the block. Fuller finished with a time of 56.24, while Smith touched at 56.47.

Only .15 seconds in front of CSU's Nicole Lynch in second place was BYU freshman Kassy Bispo, winning the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:05.52.

Five seconds ahead of the rest of the field was Grant in the 200 butterfly, finishing with a time of 2:01.67 in first place.

Going 1-2 in the 50 freestyle was Baldwin in first with a time of 24.02 and Ferrell in second with a time of 24.06 to earn significant points (13) for the Cougars in the heavily-contested meet.

Earning 16 points for the Cougars were divers Tawni Jones, Ava Jackman and Dayna Christensen going 1-2-3 on the 3-meter board. Jones finished with a final score of 333.68, Jackman with 311.78 and Christensen with 279.38 points.