Closing out their 2019 season, the University of Utah men’s and women’s swim and dive teams will head off to Federal Way, Washington for the Pac-12 Championships.
This four-day meet will feature Washington State, Oregon State, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford.
The women’s swim team is 5-4 on the season. Both of the diving teams have also seen success over the season, and many of the individuals have performed well in their events.
The Utes have faced some of their Pac-12 foes throughout their season and they have done well against the competition.
In their most recent meet, the swimmers took down Washington State with a final score of 167-93. The team was victorious in 13 of 14 events throughout the day. In their past five dual meets, the Utes have come away from each with wins.
During this meet, the 200 medley relay team broke a pool record with a time of 1:41.46. The swimmers who won this event were Emma Lawless, Darby Wayner, Aryanna Fernandes and Gillian St. John. Many other individuals also were victorious in their own events, and a few swimmers took home first place in multiple events.
At the beginning of the season, Utah started off on a low note with four straight Pac-12 losses. Their first Pac-12 rival was defending national champion, Stanford, and they fell 101-191. Only two Utes won their events, with Wayner taking the 200 IM and Emma Ruchala winning the one-meter dive.
This meet was followed by a 111.5-184.5 loss to the UC Berkeley Golden Bears. Again, two Utes placed first place in the 200 breast as well as the 400 IM. Genny Robertson took the first event and Jordan Anderson took the second. During this meet, two freshmen, Audrey Reimer and Fernandes swam their events in top 10 record times.
Next, the Utes faced their Southern California rivals, but were unable to come out on top in either meet. They fell to both USC, 120-142, and UCLA, 144-156.
At USC, the Utes fell to a ranked team but they saw lots of success in the pool. The 200 medley relay team set a pool record with a time of 1:41.96. A handful of other swimmers also won their events but they were unable to come away with a win.
The team also lost to UCLA, but they came away with six overall wins. Wayner won two events and came in second in her third and had the most success for the weekend.
Once they came into the new year, the Utes won both of their Pac-12 dual meet matchups and did well in the larger meets they were a part of as well.
Wins against both Oregon State and Washington State put the Utes in a good place moving forward into postseason play.
Both of the dive teams have seen significant success this season, with Emma Ruchala, Makenzie Caufield and Clare Greenlow leading the women’s team and Rylan Little and Daniel Theriault leading the men’s team.
The men’s swimming team will compete in their own Pac-12 championship meet next week.
The meet will take place at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington. Competition will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 27 and will go on until Saturday, March 2.
