From Wednesday, February 23 to Saturday, February 26, the University of Utah dive and women’s swim team competed in the Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

Day 1

To start off the first day of competition for the dive team in Arizona, freshman Holly Waxman advanced to the 1m finals, earning a sixth-place finish with a score of 271.75. Junior Lizzy DeCecco also competed in the 1m final, earning a score of 261.70, eighth-place. Junior Lexi Mills competed in the B final for the Utes, and finished with a final score of 223.90.

After the first day of diving was completed the women’s swim team began their competition in Washington. The Utes relied on their top medley team of Emma Lawless, Charity Pittard, Katie Hale and Leyre Casarin in the 200 medley, finishing in seventh-place with a season-best time of 1:39.38. The Utes were behind first-place finisher Stanford and second-place finisher USC.

The Utes rounded out the first day of the Pac-12 Championships by competing in the 800 free relay, and their best team of Kayla Miller, Summer Stanfield, Lyssa Watson and Molly Jacobson earned their season-best time too, with a final time of 7:18.33.

Day 2

Starting off the second day of the competition, Casarin earned a top-15 finish in the 50 free with a new personal best of 22.49.

In the 500 free, sophomore Taylor Kabacy earned her season-best time of 4:51.29, continuing a trend for the Utes. Summer Stanfield represented Utah in the 200 IM final, and finished with a final time of 2:00.58.

In Arizona, Waxman and DeCecco continued their impressive run by both earning top-15 finishes on the 3m, with final scores of 261.25 and 219.65, respectively.

With the men’s team, senior Tony Chen continued his incredible season with a fourth-place finish and a score of 334.05 in the 1m, followed by up and coming freshman Ben Smyth and his seventh-place finish with a score of 287.35, rounding up day two of competition for the Utes.

“Tony and Ben salvaged the day for us with a very solid showing in the 1m final,” head diving coach Richard Marschner told Utah Athletics. “They were very steady and dived with composure in the final so I’m happy because they dove up to their capabilities. We had kind of a rough day otherwise and I didn’t do a good enough job of making sure we were in the right place mentally because our ability and what we are capable of doing didn’t match our results. But we’ll learn from today and apply what we learned to the rest of this meet and to NCAA Zones.”

Day 3

To kick off the third day of competition, Pittard participated in the 100 breaststroke C-finals, finishing with a personal season-best time of 1:02.20, earning a 17th place finish. She also finished 16th in the 400 IM with a time of 4:24.64 to round out her strong day. Miller and Krystal Lieu finished behind Pittard in the 100-breaststroke, earning 22nd and 23rd with times of 1:03.69 and 1:03.74, respectively.

Lawless had a phenomenal day of competition, earning two new personal bests including a ninth-place finish in the 100 back with a time of 53.14 and a 13th-place finish in the 100 fly with a time of 53.38. Following Lawless, Mandy Gebhart and Norah Hay earned 16th and 19th places with times of 53.92 and 54.55, respectively, as both athletes set personal records.

Rounding out the competition, Gebhart, Pittard, Lawless and Casarin had an incredible showing in the 400-medley relay, finishing in second with a season-best time of 3:40.17.

For the diving team, Mills competed in the finals of the women’s platform, earning eight-place with a final score of 186.10. For the consolation final, Waxman put in another victory into her incredible freshman year, with a victory and personal best of 233.85, as her good friend and teammate DeCecco earned third-place with a 219.75.

Coach Marschner was thoroughly impressed with his team’s performance on Friday.

“I’m really proud of the women and how they bounced back so strongly from a disappointing day yesterday,” Marschner said via Utah Athletics. “It’s really hard to put that behind you and dive well the next day but Lexi, Holly and Lizzy all did a phenomenal job on the tower today and all three made an A final this week.”

Junior Jenner Pennock had one of the best performances of his career, setting a personal record with a score of 367.15 for fourth-place in the men’s 3m final, while Chen placed in fifth right behind him, with a score of 366.60.

“Jenner had the meet of his life, narrowly missed a podium finish and set a PB by over 30 points,” Marschner said. “He really put it all together and let his training take over and I think he learned his secret to competing well. I think Tony was unfairly penalized for some aspects of his diving as he definitely dived well enough to earn a podium finish.”

Day 4

After some great performances through the first three days of competition, Utah prepared for the final night of the Pac-12 Championships.

To begin the evening, three athletes finished 11th-13th in the 200 back. All of the athletes earned times that put them in the top-10 all for Utah in the event. Stanfield led the Utes, finishing with a time of 1:55.54 in 11th, followed by Lawless with a time of 1:55.87, and Hay 1:56.91 — all three athletes’ personal-bests in the event. Gebhart also competed in the event, with a final finish of 24th place with a time of 2:01.56.

Gebhart also set a new personal-best time of 1:57.19 in the 200 back prelims, also moving herself in the all-time list in the event.

Casarin competed in the 100 free B-finals and, earning 11th place with a personal record of 48.88 while also moving her name up on the top-10 list. Freshman Milla Ruthven earned a time of 2:05.37, in the 200 fly.

Pittard rounded out her impressive Championships week, with a 10th place finish in the 200 breast, earning a time of 2:12.72.

Freshman Marlene Sandberg competed for the Utes in the 1650 free, earning an 11th place finish with a time of 16:41.16, also entering the all-time list in the event for the Utes. Another freshman, Molly Jacobson, earned a 15th place finish with a time of 16:46.85 followed by Ruthven in 22nd with a time of 17:11.76. Cameron Danielle and Taylor Kabacy finished right behind one another, with times of 16:52.53 and 16:53.72 for 18th and 19th, respectively.

In the 400 medley relay, the Utes’ team of Casarin, Hale, junior Maddie Woznick and Lawless earned their personal-best time of the season, with a 3:20.08.

To finish off the Pac-12 Championships for the Utes, the men’s diving team competed, as three athletes advanced to the finals, the most for any team competing.

To start off in the Prelims, Pennock earned a third-place finish, with a season-best score of 331.45, as he continued a strong weekend. Smyth earned a score of 309.45 while junior Luke McDivitt earned a score of 307.20, finishing in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

The freshman Smyth competed in the finals, earning his final score of 345.40 to obtain a second-place podium finish. McDivitt, the previous platform champion, earned fourth-place with a score of 335.10 with Pennock earning a score of 313.60, earning sixth.

Coach Marschner was proud of his men’s team, pointing out Smyth’s impressive performance while even detailing some of the struggles that McDivitt was going through. 

“Today was another huge day for us on tower and we continue to mystify our competition with how good we are despite not having a 10m,” coach Marschner told Utah Athletics. “Ben had a solid day and he did the best inward three and a half I’ve ever seen him do. I’m really proud of Luke and his grit and determination to even compete. He was hours away from an emergency surgery that would’ve ended his season and he competed like the Pac-12 champion he is. We’re carrying some great momentum into zones and have the opportunity to qualify our largest team ever to the NCAA’s.”

Marschner had a lot to be proud of from his team over the weekend. Each of the men’s divers on the team had at least one top-four finish. That helped earn them a final score of 129 along with a second-place finish as a team, trailing only first-place Stanford who narrowly beat the Utes with a score of 131. For the women’s team, Utah earned fourth place with a final score of 153 behind USC, Stanford, and Arizona. For the men’s and the women’s team, this was the second-highest point total, only behind the previous year’s conference championships.

Looking Ahead

Following this week’s championships, the men’s team will prepare to travel to Federal Way, Washington to compete at their Pac-12 Championships next week, from March 2-5. The competition will occur at Weyerhaeuser King Aquatic Center, as the men’s team will look to put a stamp on their strong season.

[email protected]

@lepore_max