NR Utah Women vs. #15M/#8W USC vs. NR UC San Diego Men/Women
- Uytengsu Aquatic Center, USC, Los Angeles, California
- January 13, 2024
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Dual Meet – short format
- Full Meet Results (PDF)
- Final Team Scores
- Women
- #8 USC def. UCSD 185-69 (Exhibition aided)
- #8 USC def. Utah 172.5-84.5 (Exhibition aided)
- Utah def. UCSD 186-75
- Men
- #15 USC def. UCSD 187-72 (Exhibition aided)
- Women
The Utah Utes women’s swimming team headed to warmer weather over the weekend for a showdown against the USC Trojans and USC Tritons. There was no diving at the meet, as both USC and Utah divers were competing across town at the Bruin Diving Invitational.
The Utah men didn’t make the trip to USC, though their divers still competed at UCLA. The USC men, per the Pac-12 meet rotation, will travel to Utah in February.
Women’s Meet
- #8 USC def. UCSD 185-69
- #8 USC def. Utah 172.5-84.5
- Utah def. UCSD 186-75
The USC Trojans remain undefeated on the season, including 1-2 finishes in both the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
The “A” relay of Caroline Famous (24.98), Kaitlyn Dobler (28.21), Anicka Delgado (24.04), and Vasilissa Buinaia (23.50) combined for a 1:40.73.
The progression of the senior Famous continues to be one of the big stories for the Trojans this season. After missing the fall semester last year, Famous swam the leadoff leg of the 200 medley relay at the NCAA Championships, but stalled out with multiple 24.5s. She opened this season with a 24.4 and has been as fast as 23.8 this season.
The 24.9 she swam on Friday is about half-a-second better than she was at the team’s last dual meet a week ago.
Also of note, Hannah Kuechler split 23.32 on the anchor of USC’s “B” relay, which was .18 seconds better than Buinaia’s split on the “A” and likewise was a few tenths faster as the Trojans emerge from winter training.
Later in the session, Famous won the 100 backstroke in 54.12. That’s about a second faster than she swam last week, and about 3.7 seconds seconds better than she was at this meet last year.
She was 2nd in the individual 50 free in 23.40, a tenth behind her teammate Anicka Delgado, who won that race in 23.30 and the 100 free in 50.21. Delgado is the most recent Pac-12 Swimmer of the Week.
Delgado split 49.66 on the second leg of USC’s closing 400 free relay which wrapped in 3:22.86. The Trojans split their sprinters on that one, with the “B” relay just .13 seconds behind in 3:22.99.
While the Utah women didn’t win any races (excluding exhibition results) on Friday, Summer Stanfield got closes in a few instances. She was 2nd in the 200 IM in 2:04.44, about a second behind USC’s Minna Abraham (2:03.53). Stanfield also finished 2nd to Alice Waldow in the 200 back by a margin of 2:00.35 to 1:59.87.
Other Meet Highlights:
- Sophomore transfer Claire Tuggle won the 500 free (9:56.52) by almost 15 seconds, the 500 free (4:51.78) by almost five, and was 2nd in the 200 fly (2:05.03) behind her teammate Genevieve Sasseville (2:02.63).
- Graduate transfer Sophia Kudryashova got her first individual win as a Trojan by topping the field in the 200 free in 1:49.76.
Men’s Meet
- #15 USC def. UCSD 187-72 (Exhibition aided)
After getting upended by his twin brother in the 1000 free in the team’s last outing, Polish freshman Krzysztof Chmielewski got back to his winning ways, picking up a pair of individual victories for the 6th time in 7 collegiate meets this season.
He first won his best event, the 200 fly, where he took bronze at the World Championships over the summer, in 1:44.97 – more than six seconds ahead of the field. He returned later to win the 500 free in 4:23.37, a 15-second margin on the field.
While the twins avoided any head-to-head racing in their second meet of the spring semester, Michal Chmielewski also had success at the meet. Besides swimming the butterfly leg of the winning 200 medley relay (he split 21.48), he also won the 1000 free (9:28.73), the 100 back (48.52), and 100 fly (48.41).
That time in the 1000 free was about five seconds slower than his breakthrough swim from a week ago where he won over his brother Krzysztof in his first attempt at the race.
While they didn’t get any wins, the UCSD distance group held up well in the meet with Jackson Bernstein finishing 2nd in the 1000 free (9:36.60) and Devin Esser finishing 2nd in the 500 free (4:38.38).
Other Meet Highlights:
- USC senior Ben Dillard won the 200 free in 1:37.91 – just a few tenths shy of his personal best of 1:37.22 done on a relay leadoff leg at Winter Juniors in 2018 when he was still in high school. That time is notable because he’s primarily a breaststroker – he also won the 200 breast in 1:58.53 on Friday.
- His breaststroking colleague Chris O’Grady won the 100 breast in 54.40 and also split 44.83 on a 400 free relay for USC.
The Utah women raced UCLA on Saturday (they lost 190-106) and wrap their regular season with a dual at Washington State and a two-day dual at BYU in February.
USC’s women race Washington State this week before finishing the season with Cal, Stanford, and at USC. The men will participate in the Cal and Stanford meets
UCSD races Cal Baptist and Grand Canyon this weekend before a men’s only dual with Cal, a women’s only dual with San Diego, and a one day Triton Invitational to wrap their regular season.
