Boise State junior Brittany Aoyama turned up the heat today, winning three individual events as well as one relay as the Broncos bucked the Cougars yesterday at BYU.
Aoyama split a 24.30 fly leg on Boise State’s medley relay A, the only swimmer under 25 seconds, as the Bronco’s went 1-2 over BYU in the first event of the meet. She would come back to finish first in the 200 fly (2:05.03) and then held off BYU sprinters Ellie Thornbrue and Brenna Dickson with a 51.73 in the 100 free (Thornbrue and Dickson tied at 52.41).
In her best event, Aoyama crushed a 55.23 to take the 100 fly. She’s qualified for the NCAA Champs in both her freshman and sophomore seasons thus far with Boise State, and she won today by nearly two full seconds.
Senior Sam Wicks also provided a spark for Boise State– the Alaska native won both backstroke events, highlighted by a strong 55.12 in the 100, and led off both the medley relay (25.56) and the 200 free relay (23.84), both of which were victorious. Like Aoyama, Wicks is a seasoned NCAA qualifier. Bronco junior Felicity Cann also swam on that relay, and she added wins in the 200 free (1:51.01) and the 500 free (5:03.21).
The Cougars weren’t going to be snuffed out, however. BYU took control of the breaststroke events, with Anna Dahl taking the 100 (1:06.85) and Hanna Skaggs owning the 200 (2:22.86) with Dahl right behind her in 2nd. Skaggs was also 3rd in the 100.
BYU also got wins from Alexandria Sorenson in the 50 free (24.01) and freshman Kelly Hatanaka in the 400 IM (4:32.94).
Boise State would finish on top, though, 153 to BYU’s 111. Next, the Broncos will travel to Reno to face Nevada on November 7th, while BYU hosts UNLV on November 6th.