Olympic roundup: 5 LDS women help teams win or advance

BEIJING — Swimmer Lacey Nymeyer was the top  performer among five Mormon women who Saturday were members of teams that won games or advanced to final heats in the 2008 Olympic Games.SWIMMINGNymeyer swam

the anchor leg of the U.S. women's 400-meter freestyle relay team that

finished with a time of 3:37.53 — third best in first-round heats. The

Americans advance to the finals on Sunday morning.Nymeyer, a Tucson, Ariz., resident, completed her 100-meter leg in 53.86 seconds, the fastest of the four Americans in the relay. She is a University of Arizona student.

BASKETBALLNew Zealand defeated Mali 76-72 in a first-round game.Guard Nonila Wharemate, guard Charmian Purcell and forward Natalie Purcell

are women's team members, and all are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The latter two are sisters. Natalie Purcell led the three players in points, scoring a total of

five points in the 20 minutes she played. Her sister made one bucket,

totaling 2 points, and Wharemate scored 3 points.The Kiwis next play Spain, on Monday morning.Wharemate played

college ball at UTEP and Natalie Purcell at Southeast Missouri State

University.

WOMEN'S SOCCERNatasha Kai was a late-match substitute for the United States as the

Americans posted their first Beijing victory, a 1-0 win over Japan, played in

Qinhuangdao. The U.S. is now 1-1-0 after two pool matches.

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UP NEXT ON SUNDAY

• Beach volleyball: Bountiful native

  and current Costa Mesa, Calif., resident Jake Gibb partners with Sean

  Rosenthal to begin Games competition, with the tandem ranked No. 2 in the United States and No. 9 in the world to face Netherlands' Boersma-Ronnes

  pairing.

• Men's volleyball: A pair of former BYU stars for

  the Cougars' 1999 NCAA championship team pair up again for the first time in

  the Olympics as the United States meets Venezuela. Middle blocker Ryan Millar

  is a three-time Olympian, while Rich Lambourne is making his Games debut as

  the U.S. libero.

• Swimming: Nymeyer and the Americans move to Sunday morning's final

  at the National Aquatics Center.

• Weightlifting: In an event paired down from two scheduled qualification groups to

  just one contingent of nine lifters, Melanie Roach, ­ a mother of three from

  Bonney Lake, Wash., competes in the 53-kilogram class.