Courtesy: BYU Athletics
PROVO, Utah – BYU head swim and dive coach John Brooks today announced the scholarship recruits for the 2018-2019 season.
“Overall, I feel like it’s a good quality group of recruits we have coming in to help us with our brand new pool,” BYU head coach John Brook’s said. “Our women’s team has had some ups and downs with people going on missions and now we have a solid incoming freshman class that will make an impact as soon as they get here. Also, having someone like Josue Domingues coming from the Dominican Republic, who was ranked before he left on his mission, is going to be a great addition to our team.”
The 2018-2019 scholarship athletes for the swim and dive team include six male swimmers and five female swimmer with one female diver. The 12 new recruits include four newcomers from Utah, two from Nevada and one each from Arizona, Kansas, Washington, Wisconsin, the Dominican Republic and Spain. The team will also add six returning missionaries to the roster for the upcoming season.
Josue Domingues is from Santiago, Dominican Republic, and specializes in the breaststroke. Domingues currently holds the Dominican Republic records in the 50-yard breaststroke, 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke. He recently returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Mexico, where he served in the Pueblo South Mission.
Tamaalelagi Tuitama attends Legacy High School in Las Vegas and swims for Team Rebel Aquatics. Tuitama, a versatile athlete, swims mainly breaststroke, IM and backstroke. In the 2017 Nevada D1 State Championships, he placed second in the 200-yard IM and 100-yard breaststroke. In December, he took first in the 200-yard IM at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships-West. He recently competed in the TYR Pro Swim Series-Mesa against Olympians Chase Kalisz and Josh Prenot in the 400-meter IM and took seventh. He also has qualified for the 2018 Junior Nationals.
Josh Ries, from Highland, Utah, attends Lone Peak High School and swims for the Hilltop Aquatic Swim Team. He is the 2018 Utah 5A State Champion in the 100-yard freestyle, 50-yard backstroke and 100-yard backstroke. He recently competed at the TYR Pro Swim Series-Mesa against Olympian Matt Greves in the 50-yard back and placed eighth. He has also qualified for the 2018 Junior Nationals.
Javier Nicolas Matta is from Madrid, Spain, and competes for Club Deportivo Gredos San Diego. He specializes in the butterfly and IM and currently has times that qualify as Spain Olympic trial cuts.
Tarrin Fisher attends Washburn Rural High School in Topeka, Kansas. He swims for Topeka Swim Association and specializes in the breaststroke and IM. Fisher is the 2018 Kansas Boys 6A State Champion in the 100-yard breaststroke. He also took second in the 200-yard IM.
Jared Shaw is a transfer from Sahuarita, Arizona. He attended Saint Augustine High School and currently swims for the Sahuartia Stingrays. He placed first in the 100-yard freestyle at the 2017 AZ Short Course Senior Open Championships and placed fourth at the 2018 Speedo Four Corners Sectional Championships in the 50-yard freestyle.
Gwen Gustagson is from Brooksfield, Wisconsin, and attends Brookfield Central High School. She swims for Elmbrook Swim Club and is a sprint freestyler and breaststroker. She took second in the 50-yard freestyle at the Wisconsin Swimming 13 & Over State SCY Championships and the WIAA Girls D1 State Championships. She recently competed at the NCSA Spring Junior National Championships and has qualified for the 2018 Junior Nationals.
Fanetupou Wolfgramm is from West Valley, Utah, and attends West High School. She swims for the Salt Lake Swim Legends and mainly swims backstroke, freestyle and butterfly. She competed at the Utah Swimming Senior State Championships and took second in the 50-yard freestyle. She is the 2017 Utah 5A state champion in the 50-yard freestyle and took second in the 100-yard backstroke.
Megan Brimhall swims for the Cache Valley Marlins and attends Skyview High School. Brimhall from Hyde Park, Utah, recently took second in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle at the 2018 Utah 4A State Championships.
Makayla Cazier is from Spanish Fork, Utah, and attends Maple Mountain High School. She swims for the Utah Valley Rays and committed to BYU when she was a junior in high school. She is the 2018 Utah 4A State Champion in the 500-yard freestyle and placed second in the 200-yard IM. She also has qualified for the 2018 Junior Nationals.
Brynn Sproul attends Del Sol High School in Las Vegas and swims for Team Rebel Aquatics. She specializes in the backstroke and took first in the 200-yard backstroke and second in the 100-yard backstroke at the Nevada State Short Course meet. She also qualified for 2018 Junior Nationals.
Kennedy Cribbs is a diver from Sammamish, Washington, and attends Eastlake High School. At the 2017 WIAA 4A Girls State Swimming and Diving Championships she placed first on the 1-meter. At the Utah Diving Club Winter Invite, Cribbs placed first on both the 1-meter and 3-meter for the 16-18 age group. She will complete at the 2018 USA Diving Junior Region 10 Championships at the end of April.
Returning Missionaries
BYU will also add six returning LDS missionaries to its 2018-2019 roster. Kaela Call (Korea Seoul Mission) and Brenna Dickson (Texas San Antonio Mission) have already returned. This summer Ryan Sorensen (Liberia Monrovia Mission), Connor Stirling (Mexico Puebla North Mission), Brayden Murphy (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission) and Connor Anderson (Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission) will all return and join the team.
Departing Missionaries
Five swimmers on the current roster have been called on LDS missions, including Brad Prolo (Ukraine Kyiv Mission), Josh Skabelund (Samoa Apia Mission), Christopher Pierce (Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission), Carter Flint (Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission) and Brigham Harrison (Brazil Recife mission)
Don’t know if it is so much “bad coaching” as it is trying to get back in the “swing of things” after a 2 year absence from training. The 2 year mission that the swimmers are “coaxed” to take sure doesn’t help! They are not allowed to get in a pool (unless it’s for a baptism) during that 2 year stint. Can’t imagine not training for 2 years & then coming back & jumping back into it! More emphasis is placed upon “perfecting the Saints” than dropping time in the pool (and I have no problem with that at all since it’s all a matter of one’s perspective). Hard for me to blame coaching entirely for the team’s results. Don’t… Read more »
Except when I was there we won 3/4 conference championships and placed in the top 20 twice and we dealt with missionaries too. This new coaching staff has ruined the reputation of BYU swimming. Their subpar in season meets combined with horrendous conference results- they can’t win their conference and there’s only them, Hawaii UCSB pacific and cal poly… they’ve fallen off he path due to coaches turning away kids who would fight tooth and nail to be there and letting on kids who can’t hack it
Gwen Gustafson is from Brookfield, WI
Congrats Gwen!
Hopefully they can get some of these freshman to drop time by their senior year instead of platueaing like a lot of their current upperclassmen have done
That would require good coaching
Yeah but they have a 42 yard pool now so maybe that can offset the bad coaching
LOL!! They’ll end up using that as an excuse when Utah destroys them again and they don’t win their pathetic conference… in all seriousness, never seen coaches do less with more than what BYU does… if you have a swimmer looking at them, point them in any other direction
What has become of Maddie Balish?