The Utah men’s swimming team beat the Wyoming Cowboys handily 171-129 in Green River, Wyo. over the weekend while the Utah women’s side struggled against Boise State, falling 174-126.
“The men’s meet was fantastic,” said head coach Joe Dykstra. “We struggled in this meet last year, and it was a totally different mindset going into this meet. Our level of dedication, motivation and excitement really helped us dominate a good opponent from start to finish.”
Dykstra’s men won a total of 10 events on Saturday. Winners of the day included freshmen Mateo Sogne (1000 free), Paul Unger (100 back), Lucas Macias (200 fly), McKay King (50 free) and Liam O’Haimhirgin (100 free). Rahiti De Vos won the 500 free and Colton Montgomery finished first in the 100 fly.
Connor Cain finished at the top of the 1M diving competition and also finished third on the 3M contest.
In the relay events, it was a combination of Jack Burton, Unger, Montgomery and King winning the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:29.81. The team of Fernando Cervantes, King, De Vos, and O’Haimhirgin finished first in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:02.96.
On the women’s side, the struggles continued to pile up. The Utes headed to Boise missing five key swimmers.
“It was a mixed bag of performances,” Dykstra said. “We had some really good swims and some really good performances, but it was not consistent enough to win a meet against a very good Boise State team.”
Leading the pack for the Utes were stalwarts Stina Colleou, Jordan Anderson and Brianna Francis. Colleou finished first in the 100 breast (1:03.70) and 200 breast (2:17.01), while Anderson took the top spot in the 200 fly (2:04.58) and Francis dominated the 200 IM (2:05.90). The lady Utes had seven individual second place finishes overall, as well as second place finishes in both relays.
On the boards, Lauren Hill took first in the 3M event with a final score of 274.58, and she finished fifth in the 1M with a tally of 225.83.
While Saturday’s meets marked the final day of competition for the fall semester, the athletes can be sure that training is far from over.
“We’re full-go here till the end of exams,” Dykstra said. “After that, they have about nine days to go home and be with their families and train with their club teams before returning back here for a couple of really tough weeks of training before school starts. After that we turn our focus to really dialing in our speed for conference meets and NCAAs.”
The Utes first action of the spring will be Jan. 3 and Jan. 7 when Harvard comes to Salt Lake City for a diving and men’s meet beginning at 10 p.m. MT.. Joining in the action on Jan. 7 will be the Denver men’s and women’s side. That meet kicks off at 11 a.m. MST.