The 2015 NCAA swimming championships were one for the record books as the Utah swimming and diving teams competed well against some of the best swimmers in the world.
On the men’s side, three swimmers were named All-Americans on the first day of competition — junior Jacob Crayne, senior Nick Soedel and junior Bence Kiraly. In the ensuing days, both Soedel (sixth place in 100-yard freestyle) and Kiraly (fourth place in 1650-yard freestyle) became the first Utes to finish in the top eight at the NCAA Championships since 2006.
Thanks to the trio, as well as senior Alex Fernandez who finished in 27th place in the 100-yard butterfly, the men’s team finished in 22nd-place overall with 40.5 points, its highest total in the team’s history.
The women’s team saw senior Giuliana Gigliotti finish 33rd in the 50-yard freestyle, sophomore Stina Colleou take 40th place in the 100-yard breaststroke and 26th place in the 200-yard breaststroke, and senior Jasmine Matkovic claiming 37th place in the platform dive.
“It was great,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “The women’s meet was okay. The girls raced hard and Jasmine dived really well for her first time at the big meet…the men’s meet was incredibly successful. We had three All-Americans.”
Dykstra went on to say that even though their preparation was great, at a meet of that magnitude athletes respond differently to the heightened pressure that comes along with swimming in such an important meet. But Dykstra and the rest of the Utes didn’t crack under the pressure.
“I felt pretty confident [going into the meet],” Dykstra said. “I knew we had done a good job in training and preparation and I felt confident about that. You have to really be on your game to become an All-American and score points at that level. And we did it.”
In addition to being named All-Americans, both Kiraly and Soedel also set school records in the process. On the first day of competition, Kiraly broke a record in the 500-yard freestyle with his prelim time of 4:13.83, breaking his old record by less than a second. He also broke a record in the 1650-yard freestyle race on the final day of competition, touching in 14:41.86.
Soedel broke a school record on the second day in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:34.24, besting his old school record by nearly three-tenths of a second.
The NCAA Championships marked the end of one of the best seasons in recent memory for the men’s team, finishing the year with a 9-1 record. Its lone loss came in a dual meet to USC, who finished the NCAA meet in fourth-place.
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