Utah Swim and Dive traveled to Los Angeles to take part in the Bruin Invitational this past weekend.
On Friday, Tony Chen made a splash in his first collegiate appearance by taking fifth-place with a 603.60, while Clare Greenlow led the women by reaching the finals and placing 14th in the preliminaries with a 262.25.
“I am thrilled about our performance on Friday,” said head diving coach Richard Marschner. “We had at least four season bests and Clare navigated through a very difficult preliminary group to make finals, capping a solid day. It was great to see Tony competing for us as he showed everyone that he is going to be a force in the Pac-12 during his career.”
Saturday also proved to be a great day for the Utes, as Chen continued his first-day successes by taking second overall in the three-meter dive with a final round score of 392.8. Ryan Little also moved into the top ten for the men’s team while Greenlow and Makenzie Caufield also had a strong day on the women’s side.
“We had a very good second day here,” Marschner said. “Tony had a tremendous final round that should place him in the top-five all-time at Utah and he will be in contention to win the event at Pac-12’s and NCAA Zones. The women all had solid performances on the tower.”
What Marschner wasn’t pleased about was the distractions surrounding the event, especially the music of the UCLA pep band as a prime suspect for disruption. Still, he praised his swimmers’ success.
“[They] dove consistently even though there were many distractions at the pool today, namely the pep band playing incredibly loud. Clare had her best score on the platform and we hope she continues it tomorrow because it should be another strong day for us.”
On the final day of the Bruin Invitational, the Utes ended with two top-ten finishes in the men’s platform as Little took eighth-place and Daniel Theriault placed in sixth. Greenlow led the Utes women’s team for the third day in a row by getting a top-20 finish in the one-meter dive.
The Utes have a home meet upcoming against BYU and the College of Idaho. Diving will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25 and will be continued on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Swimming will also begin at 4:00 p.m. on Jan. 25 and will continue at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
