Utah vs Colorado Mesa vs Denver
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah swimming and diving team celebrated its Senior Day on Saturday at the Ute Natatorium and were completely dominant in the meet taking home victories in 26 of the 32 total events. In their first action of 2022, the Utes came away victorious against two opponents in fourth-ranked Colorado Mesa University (489.00-110.00), according to the latest CSCAA DII rankings and the University of Denver (437.00-163.00).
In The Pool
The Utah swimming team wasted no time asserting their dominance today capturing the victory in the first nine events of the meet. Getting it all started was the team of Emma Lawless, Katie Hale, Leyre Casarin, and Madison Story who combined to win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:42.18. The men followed suit, as Matt Wilcox, Andrei Ungur, Cooper deRyk, and Finn O’Haimhirgin combined to win in 1:30.01.
Freshman Marlene Sandberg paced the women in the 1,000 free placing first in 10:31.05, followed by sophomore Taylor Kabacy who finished in 10:35.77. It was sophomore Dylan Becker who lead the charge for the men in the 1,000 free as he captured the event in 9:38.22 with junior Nathan Ramey touching second in 9:43.25. Becker would capture his second victory of the day in the 500 free finishing in 4:38.99.
Junior transfer Summer Stanfield competed as a Ute for the first time after joining the team in January and immediately showed her value taking home the event win in the 200 free (1:52.83) and 200 back (2:03.22).
Senior Ben Waterman earned his first victory of Senior Day in the 200 free finishing in 1:40.84. Waterman added to his senior day with a victory in the 100 fly (48.63).
The women made their presence known in the 100 back finishing 1-4. Lawless lead the way touching first in 55.26 as sophomore Kate Leary (56.92), freshman Norah Hay (57.88) and fifth year Mandy Gebhart (57.94) finished second, third and fourth, respectively. The men joined the fun as the top five finishers in the 100 back were all Utes. Ungur captured the victory (48.85), redshirt sophomore Parker McOmber finished in second (50.02) and junior JP Hynes placed third (50.55).
Junior Charity Pittard won the 100 breast in 1:04.48, but the streak of nine event wins in a row came to an end in the ensuing race.
The Utes got back in the win column as sophomore Marko Kovacic cruised to a victory in the 200 fly finishing in 1:52.13.
Right before the first break of the meet, both the men and women swept the 50 free. Junior Finn O’Haimhirgin (20.74) and Casarin (23.43) earned the victories. O’Haimhirgin and Casarin continued their strong performances as both won the 100 free.
It was the duo of Sandberg (5:07.77) and Kabacy (5:09.22) yet again finishing first and second in the 500 free, respectively.
Freshman Sydney Rogness touched first in the 400 IM (4:26.60) as Pittard followed behind finishing in second (4:31.58).
Casarin led off for the first-place 200 free relay (1:33.40), joined by Maddie Woznick, Emma Lawless, and Katie Hale.
Senior Cooper deRyk led off for the men in the 200 free relay, joined by O’Haimhirgin, Hynes and anchored by Ungur for the victory (1:21.88).
All in all, it was a banner day for the Utah program, capping the careers of several of its best swimmers. Despite the large gap in competitive action, Utah came out against two different opponents and showcased great performances.
“We are so happy to have a meet finally,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “We definitely had some rust to kick off but the effort was solid. We will look to build some momentum towards the end of the season.”
On The Boards
Freshman Holly Waxman put together a top-ten performance all-time at Utah, finishing first in the 1m dive with a score of 298.85. Lizzy DeCecco (286.45) and Lexi Mills (271.40) followed Waxman finishing in second and third, respectively in the 1m. Waxman would later finish second in the 3m (276.70), trailing the first-place performance of teammate Mills (311.85).
The senior duo of Luke McDivitt and Tony Chen combined for excellence yet again, with McDivitt finishing first in the 3m (358.65) and Chen placing second (343.50). Utah blocked out the 3m, as freshman Ben Smyth captured third (266.25). Chen and McDivitt traded places on the 1m, with Chen scoring 321.15 and McDivitt finishing with a score of 319.95. Fellow Ute Jenner Pennock was third with 317.60, a personal-best.
“I’m really happy with how we competed today after such a long layoff,” head diving coach Richard Marschner said. “We had two personal-best performances and some near misses at PB’s, so it was really encouraging to see that our training is paying off and we’re continuing to follow an upward trajectory heading into the final month of the season.”
Looking Ahead
The Utes will travel south down I-15 next weekend, Jan. 28-29, to compete against in-state rival BYU for a dual-match inside the BYU Richards Building Pool. The two-day meet will begin on Friday at 5:00 p.m. MT with the diving events. On Saturday, the meet will start at 11:00 a.m. MT with the swimming events.
Courtesy: Colorado Mesa Athletics
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah— Ben Sampson won an event for the second straight day while runner-up finishes from Kelsea Wright, Katerina Matoskova, Dejan Urbanek, the men’s 200 free relay team and an improved NCAA Division II Championship qualifying time from Lily Borgenheimer highlighted the efforts of the Colorado Mesa University Maverick swimming and diving teams in a Saturday tri-meet against NCAA Division I foes here at the University of Utah’s Ute Natatorium.
After winning the 100-yard backstroke in a Friday tri-meet at BYU, Sampson claimed the victory over 200 yards on Saturday, touching in one minute, 49.44 seconds to lead the Maverick men, who dropped team decisions to the host Utes (239-61) and another Division I opponent in the University of Denver (159-141).
He, Lane Austin, Matt Barrett and Andrew Scoggin also took second in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:53.87 after Urbanek placed second in the 200 fly with a time of 1:54.96.
On the women’s side, Wright touched second in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.87 while Matoskova took second in the 200 back with a mark of 2:04.84. Borgenheimer had two third place finishes and finished the 400 IM in 4:31.89, which with the available altitude adjustment of 5.0 seconds, will put her atop the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s season-long performance list and up one spot to fifth in Maverick all-time history at 4:26.89.
Borgenheimer also placed third in the 200 breaststroke at 2:20.39 and placed fifth in the 100-yard distance with a time of 1:05.54.
The Maverick women, now 11-10-1 in duals this season, also received top-5 finishes from Amelia Kinnard, Izzy Powers, Davy Brown and the 200 medley relay team of Lauren White, Borgenheimer, Brown and Powers, but those were not enough for the Mavericks, who dropped team scoring decision to the Utes of the Pac-12 (79-221) and the Pioneers (82-218), winners of the last eight Summit League titles.
Kinnard, the Maverick school-record holder, took fourth in the 1000 free (10:43.44), while Powers (24.61) and Brown (53.39) each took fifth in the 50 and 100-yard free races, respectively. The 200 medley relay quartet finished in 1:47.00.
The Maverick men (9-6) had 12 total top-5 finishes throughout the day as Sampson, Kuba Kiszczak, Urbanek and Austin started the day with a third place 200 medley relay effort of 1:33.18.
Freshman John Walgast then took third in the 200 free with a season-best mark of 1:43.36. He also placed fourth in the 100 fly with a time of 50.84 seconds and took fifth in the 200 fly at 1:57.98.
Meanwhile, Sampson finished fifth in the 50 free, touching in 21.36 seconds while Barrett finished fourth in the 100 free with a time of 46.47.
Later, freshman Jeremy Koch placed fifth in the 200 back at 1:53.75 behind Sampson while another freshman in Stef Teutsch finished fourth in the 500 free after touching in 4:49.51.
On the diving boards, Tanner Belliston led CMU with a fourth place finish on the 3-meter with a score of 260.85 points. Kyra Apodaca led the Maverick women’s divers with sixth place finishes in both the 1 and 3-meter events.
The Mavericks will now begin final preparations for the RMAC Championships, which they will host at the El Pomar Natatorium in Grand Junction, Colorado from Feb. 9-12. Both CMU teams will be looking for their fourth successive team titles.
Courtesy: Denver Athletics
PROVO & SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Denver Swim and Dive team wrapped up two tri-meets this past weekend in Utah. The Pioneers competed at BYU on Friday before heading to Utah for another meet on Saturday.
Denver Event Wins at BYU Tri-Meet
Daniela Alfaro – 200 Butterfly – 2:05.86
Gaby Antonini – 100 Back – 57.89
Erika Remington – 50 Free – 23.61
Aysia Leckie – 100 Free – 52.16
Marco Nosack – 200 IM – 1:53.03
Denver Event Wins at Utah Tri-Meet
Daniela Alfaro – 200 Butterfly – 2:07.20
Jessica Maeda – 200 Breast – 2:17-91
Marco Nosack – 100 Breast – 57.76
Marco Nosack – 200 Breast – 2:04.29
Marco Nosack – 400 IM – 4:05.42
Team Head-to-Head Results at BYU Tri-Meet
Women
BYU 173, Denver 129
Denver 205.50, Colorado Mesa 94.50
Men
Colorado Mesa 158, Denver 141
BYU 204, Denver 94
In Provo, the Pioneers competed against Colorado Mesa and the host Cougars. DU picked up the head-to-head win over the Mavericks on the women’s side with a 205.5-94.5 victory on Friday.
The women’s team picked up four first-place finishes in Alfaro, Antonini, Reminington and Leckie.
For the men, Nosack was the lone Pioneer to record a win, picking it up the 200 IM.
Team Head-to-Head Results at Utah Tri-Meet
Women
Utah 221, Denver 79
Denver 218, Colorado Mesa 82
Men
Utah 216, Denver 84
Denver 159, Colorado Mesa 141
Alfaro, Maeda and Nosack helped lead the way for the Pioneers as both the men’s and women’s teams picked up head-to-head wins over CMU.
Nosack racked up three victories in the 100 and 200 Breast along with the 400 IM. For Alfaro, she took first in the 200 Butterfly while Maeda won the 200 Breast.
DU returns home to host the Sprint Eliminator on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT.
