Women’s Swim and Dive Team Sets Several New School Records but Finishes 7th at Pac-12 Championships
(Chronicle archives)
March 1, 2020
Day 1
To begin the Pac-12 championships, the Utes witnessed the breaking of an eight-year school record in the 400 Medley relay leadoff leg. Sophomore Audrey Reimer swam the 100 back in 52.69, which broke the previous record set by former Ute Traycie Swartz. The rest of team, which included Emma Lawless, Leyre Casarin and Charity Pittard, would finish with an overall time of 3:37, good enough for the second-fastest time in Utah history.
The first day’s events continued over on the boards with the men’s 1m. Tony Chen received a score of 367.10, which secured the fourth-best score in Utah history and also fifth in the preliminaries, advancing him to the finals. Luke McDivitt also earned a spot in the final round, placing eighth in the preliminaries.
Day 2
As the events continued into the second day of competition, Utah would see even more impressive individual performances. Charity Pittard posted the top individual performance of the second day as she finished 14th in the 200 IM. With a time of 1:59.88, she was able to secure a spot in the “B” final and recorded the fourth fastest swim in NCAA “B” qualifiers.
As competition heated up over on the boards, Tony Chen started strong for Utah in the men’s 3m preliminary round. He finished third in the prelims but encountered stellar competition in the finals and finished sixth despite a better personal score than in the previous round. On the women’s boards, Lizzy DeCecco would finish 11th in the 1m with a score of 250.25.
Day 3
Moving into day three, Utah sent 13 of its female swimmers into the individual finals. Pittard and Christina Pick were able to qualify for the 400 IM “B” final, where Pick would swim the fourth-fastest time in Utah history at 4:16.57.
On the boards, DeCecco was Utah’s top performer in the women’s 3m, posting a score of 270.00. As for the men, Luke McDivitt would enter in the fourth spot but eventually drop to eighth on the platform to conclude the evening.
Day 4
On the final day of competition, one last school record would be broken. Reimer posted a school best of 1:52.51 in the 200 back, which beat the previous record by more than two seconds. Reimer would also lead off in the 400 free relay and record a 49.60, good enough for the fourth-fastest time in Utah history.
Despite all the new school records and personal bests by the team, the Utes would finish seventh out of eight at the Pac-12 Championships with a score of 636.5. As expected, the competition proved to be fierce as Stanford University finished first with a score of 1598, followed by the University of California in second with a score of 1224.5 and the University of Southern California in third with a score of 1212.
The focus now turns to the men’s swimming team as they are set to compete in the Pac-12 Championships beginning on Wednesday, March 4 and extending through Saturday, March 7.
Expectations are high as the men’s team enters the competition ranked No. 25 in the Nation.
