Utah Women’s Swimming and Diving Upset Arizona For First Time Ever; Arizona Men Prevail

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Utah women’s swimming and diving upset the Arizona Wildcats for the first time ever on Friday night in Salt Lake City as the Arizona men prevailed.

RESULTS

Utah Women’s Swimming and Diving Press Release

Utah Women’s Swim and Dive earned its first win ever against Arizona with a 174-126 result on Friday.

“This is really huge for us,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “Not many people thought this was possible. We have made incremental progress here at Utah. It is hard to build a program overnight, it takes time to build that up. Today showed our strong progress. We were a little shorthanded but our freshmen, Charity Pittard, Lizzy DeCecco, Leyre Casarin, Maddie Woznick and Kayla Miller, really stepped up.”

In that 50 free, Casarin took first in 23.91 while Woznick was the runner-up and Miller placed third. Casarin also captured the 100 free in 52.09 and was the anchor in the victorious 200 medley relay. Swimming with Sarah Lott, Mariah Gassaway and Emma Lawless, the quartet finished in 1:43.16

Pittard started her Utah career with wins in the 200 breast (2:19.55) and 200 IM (2:05.53), as well as a second place finish in the 100 breast (1:05.03). DeCecco was strong on the board with wins in the 1m (255.30) and 3m (249.98) events and Miller second in the 200 free (1:53.94). Casarin, Woznick and Miller joined Audrey Reimer in the 400 free relay, winning in 3:28.04. Reimer also won the 200 back with a time of 2:02.16.

Among the other returners, Lott won the 100 back in 55.12, Sara McClendon was the runner up in the 1000 free (10:20.62) and 500 free (5:03.04) and Christina Pick took second in the 200 fly (2:05.72) and third in the 100 fly (58.65).

The women head to Los Angeles next week for a pair of dual meets with No. 25 UCLA and No. 15 USC

Utah Men’s Swim and Dive dropped its season opener to Arizona today, 172-129.

“We opened really strong by winning the 200 medley relay,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “Liam O’Haimhirgin won the 100 free, Cooper DeRyk took the 50 free and David Fridlander performed well in his first competition since the Israeli Nationals. We are exceptionally young and there is going to be a learning curve as we red-shirt a couple of our key swimmers.”

The aforementioned 200 medley relay consisted of Fridlander, DeRyk, O’Haimhirgin and Andrew Britton and took first in 1:30.14. Fridlander also won the 100 back in 55.12 and took second in the 200 back (1:52.14), DeRyk won the 50 free (21.04), O’Haimhirgin won the 100 free (46.23) and Britton was second in the 100 breast (57.26).

Fridlander, DeRyk, O’Haimhirgin and his brother Finn were second in the 400 free relay (3:02.70) to cap the meet.

Rahiti De Vos and Ben Waterman both turned in a pair of top times for the Utah men. De Vos was 2nd in the 500 free (4:38.66) and third in the 200 free (1:42.41) while Waterman won the 100 fly (50.12) and took second in the 200 fly (1:53.38). Other strong performances were turned in by Tyler Klawiter (2nd, 1000 free, 9:30.80), Brody Lewis (2nd, 200 breast, 2:07.87) and Jaek Horner (3rd, 200 IM, 1:56.46).

Tony Chen was the top diver, finishing second in the 3m and third in the 1m events

The Utes travel to California for a meet next weekend against UCSB on Saturday.

“Both teams are traveling to orange County next week for fall break,” Dykstra added. “We expect a hard week of training and it will be a good bonding experience for everyone.”

Arizona Swimming and Diving Press Release

The men proved victorious today over Utah, 171.50-128.50 and the women lost 174-126, for an even split in the dual meet. In total, the Cats tallied 18 wins. There were five swimmers and one diver with multiple wins in the meet.

Wildcat Wins

Brooks Fail had four event wins in the 200 Free, 500 Free, 1000 Free, and the 400 Free relay to close out the meet. Sam Iida proved victorious in the 100 Breast, 200 Breast, and the 200 I.M.

Brendan Meyer and Hannah Cox each placed first in two events of their own. Meyer winning the 100 (49.66) and 200 Fly (1:49.96) while Cox won the 500 (5:01.73) and 1000 Free (10:17.54).

Fantastic Freshman

Freshman Diver Bjorn Markentin had a phenomenal collegiate debut, taking home victories in both of his events, the 1 and 3-meter dives.

Freshman Swimmer Hannah Farrow also had an amazing collegiate debut, placing first in the 100 (57.44) and 200 Fly (2:05.27).

 

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Jeppesen Feliciano
4 years ago

Keith Warner I’ll take it

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