The Utah rugby team is coming off two flawless performances. With a 43-0 victory over Weber State, followed by a 60-0 shellacking of the Oregon State Beavers, the Utes are ready to continue their shutout streak Saturday against the visiting Idaho State Bengals. The 4-1 Utes have rattled off a four-game winning streak after faltering 24-20 in the season opener against the Wyoming Cowboys. Utah is led by Mike na Nagara, Mike Wunderli and Mark Goldhardt, who have started many games this season.

The Utes have played their last four games at Baliff Field, and will look to continue their winning streak there against the Bengals. After Saturday’s game, the Utes will head to the Evergreen State next weekend to take on the Washington Huskies and Central Washington University.

Earlier this season, the Utes had trouble with Mountain West Conference foes Air Force and Wyoming, falling behind early and trailing heading into halftime. However, the Utes salvaged one of those games and came back to defeat the Falcons in a low-scoring 12-6 victory.

Saturday’s game against the Bengals kicks off at 1 p.m. at Baliff Field.
Chris Kamrani

The women’s swimming team will dive into its first conference meet Saturday as it faces San Diego State.
The Utes are 4-0 this season after two straight wins against a ranked University of Washington team and two wins against Boise State. This will be San Diego State’s first meet of the year.

“We are really looking forward to (Saturday),” head coach Greg Winslow said. “San Diego State has a great freshman class coached by second-year coach Mike Shrader.”

For the Utes, Whitney Lopus will lead the swimmers in the fly events while Hannah Caron and Natalie Edge will be headlining the freestyle events. The divers will be led by Anna Braszkiewicz after she placed first in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives against Washington.

“It will be a great challenge for us,” Winslow said. “We are looking forward to opening up Mountain West Competition.”
The meet is Saturday at San Diego State in the Aztec Aquaplex. The next meet for the men’s team will be at home against the University of Denver on Nov. 1.

James Boehly

While the weather forecast for the first weekend of Fall Break doesn’t look ideal, that won’t stop the baseball team from having its first organized scrimmages against the Salt Lake Community College Bruins.

It’s not a common sight to see a Division I school and a Junior College face each other in any format, and it’s even less common to see two teams scrimmaging with the start of the season still months away. However, this scrimmage was scheduled as a way for the Utes to get a few games in before freezing temperatures begin to hit the valley.

While they are not a Division I team, the Bruins are not pushovers by any means. Most of SLCC’s players go on to play at bigger schools, and will provide a nice warmup for the Utes.

The scrimmages are set to be played this Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. The Bruins will host the games at Cate Field in South Jordan, meaning the Utes will follow the Bruin’s home field requirement and play with wooden bats.

After this short series, the Utes will have four months off before heading out on a 17-game road trip. The season opener is set for Feb. 20 against Loyola Maramount in Los Angeles, Calif. Their first home game is scheduled to be a month later against TCU at Franklin Covey Field.

Marco Villano