“I was really nervous that I was going to completely burn out but, with the help of my team, I was able to be calm and trust myself,” said Miller Lung. “Being a Big 12 Champ doesn’t feel real. I’ve dreamed about this all year long and it’s crazy to have cashed in on my hard work.”

Miller Lung started the day strong with a win of nearly two seconds in a personal-best 2:09.20 in the 200 breast prelim.

Immediately after diving into the water in Saturday night’s final, Miller Lung established herself as the race’s leader. The junior breaststroker recorded splits of 1:00.46 and 1:06.07 while clearing the competition well before the flags in a win of 3.28 seconds. Houston’s Flo Peter and Nina Vadovicova of TCU followed Miller Lung in second and third, respectively.

Miller Lung not only secured BYU women’s swim and dive’s first ever Big 12 individual title but became the first Cougar women’s swimmer to win an conference championship since Brynn Sproul in 2022.

A junior from Clovis, California, Miller Lung now ranks seventh nationally in the 200 breast, ahead of athletes from the likes of swimming bluebloods Tennessee, Virginia and Indiana.

Miller Lung’s 200 breast championship was a fitting finish to her accomplished week in Federal Way that included three All-Big 12 First Team placements, five school-record shattering individual races and a part in two school record-rewriting relays.

With wins in both Saturday’s 200 breast prelim and final, Miller Lung brought her season tally to 16 race victories.

Overall, BYU women’s swim and dive finished the 2025 Big 12 Championships in seventh with 722.5 team points. The Cougars’ accomplishments at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center featured nine all-conference performers, including five first finishes. BYU rewrote 10 school records, including four of five relays. Sixteen program top 10 times were set by BYU women, half of which were credited to freshmen. Together, the Cougars compiled 49 personal best times.

On the men’s side, the Cougars ended their 2025 Big 12 Championships on a high note with a 400 free relay school record and two more all-conference finishers as BYU took fifth with 960 team points.

BYU’s accomplishments at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center featured 10 all-conference performers, including two first teamers, while also encompassing three broken school records, 19 program top 10 swims, and 59 personal best times or scores.

Eight of the 19 additions to BYU’s top 10 record board were posted by freshmen.

The Cougars finished the meet strong on Saturday night with the 400 free relay squad of Nathaniel Eliason, Payton Plumb, Tanner Nelson and Luigi Riva combining for a school-record 2:51.19. The record-breaking time helped the foursome hold sway in third with a two-second lead on fourth-place TCU. Eliason sparked the relay with a personal-best 43.11 in the leadoff leg. Plumb and Nelson followed in 42.63 and 42.93, respectively, while Riva anchored with a time of 42.52.

Nelson and Emerson Edwards secured BYU’s ninth and 10th all-conference finishes of the meet in Saturday’s 200 breast final. In the morning’s prelim, Nelson recorded the program’s second-fastest 200 breast all-time in a personal-best 1:55.09. Edwards reached the A Final with a season-best 1:55.38. The two Cougars finished in seventh and eighth, respectively, in the final to each earn All-Big 12 Second Team.

In just his first season back from two years of full-time missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico, Nelson achieved three All-Big 12 placements, including first team in the 400 individual medley.

Freshman Peter Etzold made the 200 Breast B Final and made the most of it with a personal-best 1:56.13, good for No. 5 all-time at BYU.

No BYU men’s swimmer made a more dramatic climb up a record board on Saturday than did Eliason. The freshman from Mechanicsville, Virginia began the day with the program’s ninth-fastest ever 100 free in 43.48. In the 100 free B Final, Eliason improved to 43.44. By day’s end in the 400 free relay, Eliason used his leadoff 100 free to jump to fourth all-time at 43.11.

With the 2025 Big 12 Championships complete, the Cougars now move into further postseason action as they look to qualify for NCAA Championships.