The Utah women’s swim team wrapped up its regular season over the weekend by battling Washington State and Idaho in the Utes’ final tune-ups before the Pac-12 championships.
On Friday the Utes traveled to Pullman and were defeated by the Cougars, 156.5 to 105.5.
“I was pretty disappointed in Friday,” said head coach Joe Dykstra. “There was a million reasons why we weren’t great. We were by no means full-strength. I was disappointed by our attitude.”
Stina Colleou echoed her coach’s thoughts.
“I think we went in a little bit too confident,” Colleou said. “We might have thought it was going to be an easier match than it actually was. They put up a really, really good fight, and they were ready and we weren’t.”
The 200-medley relay team of Megan Kawaguchi, Colleou, Melissa Paakh and Maddie Jamora took second in the opening event with a time of 1:44.54.
Even though the relay team wasn’t able to get the first place finish, the individuals of the relay team did well. Kawaguchi won the 100-yard backstroke. Colleou took her two events, winning the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.41) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:16.59).
Jamora won the 50-yard freestyle, out-touching a Washington State swimmer by less than a half of a second.
Petra Soininen was able to win the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:02.98, and Maddie Meisel was right behind her, finishing in 2:04.45 to claim second place. Meisel wouldn’t get used to second place, though, as she later won the 500-yard freestyle.
There were other high finishes at the meet. Selin Ozturk took third in the 1,000-yard freestyle, Dorien Butter finished second in the 200-yard freestyle and Kylie Boyce placed second in the 200-yard IM.
The next day Utah traveled to Idaho and rebounded by knocking off the Vandals, 153-88. Utah dominated the meet through its entirety and won 10 of the 13 events.
Unlike the previous day, the relay team in the 200-medley relay captured first place, and it was followed closely by Utah’s second team in the event.
In the 50-yard backstroke, the Utes claimed the top three spots. Archer took first while Erika Nist and Jenna Griffith took second and third, respectively.
After being out-touched in the 50-yard breaststroke, Colleou bounced back and won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.31.
Utah continued its dominance in the 100-yard butterfly, with Paakh touching in first (55.99) and Soininen (56.75) finishing in second.
Kawaguchi (100-yard freestyle) and Meisel (200-yard freestyle) also claimed event wins.
The women’s team will have a break to focus on training in preparation for the Pac-12 Championships, which begin on Feb. 25.
Dykstra said it is important now for his team to focus on muscle memory and fine-tuning the small things, such as pace. He said the team will slowly back off their work load in preparation for the championship meet.
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