BYU Athletics: Cougar sports year in reveiw

Winter Sports

Basketball

For the men’s team, expectations fell when Eric Mika decided to turn pro early. With Yoeli Childs, Elijah Bryant, and TJ Haws coming back, though, the Cougars still looked like a possible NCAA bubble team.

For the first half of the season, they looked like one, but they struggled down the stretch, losing games they couldn’t afford to lose (Pacific, Loyola Marymount, San Diego).

The highlight of the season came in the WCC Tournament, when the Cougars got a convincing 85-72 win over St. Mary’s. But that was followed by a beatdown by Gonzaga and a loss to Stanford in the first round of the NIT. All in all, BYU finished 24-11, and 11-7 in conference play.

The women’s team didn’t fare any better. The Cougars had lost some key pieces coming into the season, but still returned Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee, Amanda Wayment, and brought in graduate transfer Malia Nawahine.

BYU could never find any consistency. They had impressive wins, but a lot of head-scratching losses. When Devashrayee got injured in the first game of the WCC Tournament, it effectively ended the Cougars’ season. They finished the season 16-14, and failed to even qualify for the NIT Tournament.

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Gymnastics

Gymnastics had their strongest season in a long time. The Cougars won six of their regular season meets, but weren’t able to finish high enough in the NCAA Regionals to advance to the Championships.

Shannon Hortman Evans qualified individually on the uneven bars, though, and earned Second Team All-American honors after finishing 7th in the nation with a score of 9.900.

Overall, BYU finished as the No. 19 team in the country.

Swimming and Diving

Neither the men’s or women’s teams performed well in 2017-18. The men failed to win a single meet, and finished third in the MPSF Swimming Championships.

Three divers – Matt Denkers, Nathan Gonzales, and Morgan Cooper – qualified for the Zone E Championships, but none made it to nationals.

The women failed to win a meet all season as well, and finished fifth in the conference meet.

Just like the men, the women’s team sent three divers to the Zone E Championships – Elizabeth Holmes, Morgan Mellow, and Morgan Paul – but none were able to advance past the regional.