The Utah men’s and women’s swim teams traveled to Colorado to compete in the Intermountain Shootout last weekend, and both squads saw success. After a loss last week to Stanford, the women’s team was able to bounce back and garner first place. The men’s squad also walked away victorious, joining its counterpart on top of the podium.
The meet, which included BYU, Air Force and Colorado Mesa, was a good early season test for both the women’s and men’s teams. The women ended with a score of 314 while the men scored a 259.
“We felt really confident in getting the team win overall, BYU and Air Force have some outstanding individual talent,” said head coach Joe Dykstra.
He said the overall team depth was the difference in the meet. The Utes have much more depth than any of the other competing teams, which gave Utah an advantage.
The women had a total of 11 wins on the day. Petra Soininen led the way with wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard fly races. Stina Colleou also placed first in two events when she out-touched Jenna Marsh in the 50-yard breaststroke and pulled away in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The 200-yard freestyle went to senior Amanda Barrett, who touched in with a time of 1:54.92. In the 500-yard freestyle, the Utes finished first and second with freshman Maddie Meisel and sophomore Selin Ozturk.
“The freshmen have been doing so well in training,” Dykstra said. “It’s been more of a continuation since the Stanford meet. It’s really encouraging how well they’re doing.”
Junior Kristian Kron said he has noticed how hard all of the team’s freshmen have been working during practice. He said he could tell how badly they want to do well this season and so far, they haven’t disappointed.
The men’s side gathered up seven first-place finishes, including wins in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays.
Another freshman, Ganem Tebet, came away with a victory in the 200-yard breaststroke.
In the 500-yard freestyle, the Utes claimed the top three spots. Bence Kiraly touched first with a time of 4:30.85, while Peter Kotson came in second at 4:37.28 and Brandon Shreeve finished third with a 4:37.97.
Utah also went 1-2-3-4 in the 200-yard butterfly. Chris Taber took first, while Luis Macias, Dave Fraser and Ben Scott finished out the top four. Taber’s time of 1:50.67 was enough to hold off the rest of the pack by a slim margin.
Continuing last year’s success, senior Nick Soedel won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 43.40.
Not all swimmers had a great meet, however. Kron, who has taken two months off from swimming since last season, got back into a real meet for the first time.
“It was painful,” he said. “I’m swimming the hardest events in the 400-yard IM and 200-yard backstroke. I have it back to back. I knew it was going to be hard, but I was prepared.”
Dykstra was very pleased with how well his swimmers did over the course of the meet. The experience for the team was great, he said.
“A bus trip is always a good bonding experience,” he said. “We got a lot out of the weekend from a team perspective as well as competitive perspective. Competitively, the times show we’re way ahead of last year at this point. I think most importantly, our team depth is vastly improved from a year ago.”
The women’s swim and dive team will next compete when it travels to Boise, Idaho to square off against Boise State on Wednesday.
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