Over the weekend, the Utah swimming and diving teams traveled to Provo, where they took on BYU on Saturday. While the women’s team walked away with a win of 198-102, the men were defeated 155-145 in the annual Deseret First Duel.
“I am really proud of our team for a great meet against BYU,” said head coach Joe Dykstra. “We showed great effort and put up a great fight. The women got off to a sluggish start, reeled off a whole string of wins and got the victory. We had a lot of events where we finished one-two-three during the second half of the meet, and that was key to doubling up the Cougars.”
The women set the tone of the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay (1:45.45), consisting of sophomore Megan Kawaguchi, freshman Julienne Tadena, sophomore Jenna Marsh and freshman Gillian St. John. This wasn’t the only relay won by the Utes, as Marsh, sophomore Dorien Butter, St. John and freshman Jordan Anderson also took the victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:31.82.
The women’s team continued its winning streak as Kawaguchi took the 100- (57.27) and 200-yard backstroke (2:05.85), Marsh taking the 100-yard butterfly (56.57), and Butter winning the 200- (1:54.97) and 100-yard freestyle (52.42). St. John managed to take second behind her teammate with a 52.50.
In the 1,000-yard freestyle, Anderson took the win with a 10:35.97 time, while her teammate, sophomore Kat Wickham, took second place behind Anderson, (10:41.32). Wickham took a first place, as well, in the 500-yard freestyle (5:09.48). Sophomore Isabella Kearns took home a first-place finish with her team, touching in at 2:07.13 in the 200-yard butterfly.
Freshman Genevieve Robertson took second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.06), just missing the top spot, but managed to snag first in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.76), as her teammate, junior Stina Colleou, took second (2:19.55).
For the 200-yard IM, junior Brianna Francis and freshman Darby Wayner took first and second, hitting 2:06.43 and 2:08.15, respectively. Sophomore Hailey Pabst took a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke (2:06.94), behind Kawaguchi.
In diving, junior Amanda Casillas took first in both the one-meter (296.55) and three-meter (311.10) events as sophomore teammate Lauren Hall took second in the one-meter (262.85).
The men started strong, as sophomore Jay Bolinger took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:41.62) and sophomore Calvin Rogers took second (9:51.07). Bolinger was also second in the 500 free with a time of 4:40.30.
Senior Bence Király kept the momentum going as he captured both the 200- (1:39.51) and 500-yard freestyle (4:32.11), with Bolinger taking second behind him with a 4:40.30. Király also placed in the 100-yard freestyle (45.70), taking second behind BYU.
Senior Kristian Kron took first in the 200-yard butterfly (1:49.69) and managed to snag second-place finishes in the 200-yard backstroke (1:47.76) and the 200-yard IM (1:52.21).
Sophomores Paul Ungur and Ganem Tebet were the last two swimmers for Utah to take second-place finishes, as Ungur took second in both the 100-yard backstroke (49.15) and the 100-yard butterfly (49.54), while Tebet took second in the 200-yard breaststroke.
In diving, junior Josiah Purss broke the school record in the three-meter event, scoring a total of 453.75, and taking first in the event. Purss also finished second in the one-meter event with a score of 379.80 while senior teammate Jacob Crayne took first (379.80).
“On the men’s side, I couldn’t be more proud of the effort and the fight the guys showed,” Dykstra said. “BYU came ready to race, and they have a great team. They were well-prepared and we were really short-handed. That being said, the guys that we had in the meet really stepped up, and it came down to tenths and hundredths of a second in a lot of the events. I am really proud, and this was a great environment for our team today.”
Up next, both the men’s and women’s team will be traveling to Denver, Colo. to take on the Pioneers. This meet is set to begin at 4 p.m. MT.
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