Utah Swim & Dive Opens Home Schedule With Nontraditional Clash With LSU

Courtesy: Utah Athletics

SALT LAKE CITY – For the first time in the 2023-24 season the Ute Natatorium will host a home dual meet, as the University of Utah swimming and diving team prepares to host the LSU Tigers on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Salt Lake City.

“I’m very excited to see what we can do tomorrow,” said head coach Jonas Persson. “It’s going to be a very fun meet and the whole team is excited. I expect some fast swims tomorrow and for people to step up and get some good wins and hopefully we can have great results again. But it’s an early meet and we will learn from it and make sure we move in the right direction and stick to our game plan to be the best that we could be at the end of the season.”

Meet Day Promotions
Saturday’s showdown will serve as the program’s Breast Cancer Awareness meet, with the team outfitted in pink and pink bracelets and rally towels will be handed out to fans. There will also be free coffee and doughnuts for the first 150 fans.

On the Boards
Saturday’s showdown will give Utah’s divers their first chance to compete in 2023-24 and the list of athletes who will be back on the boards will include 2023 Pac-12 medalists Elias Petersen and Holly Waxman, as well as sophomore Kathryn Grant, who joined Petersen and Waxman at the 2023 NCAA Championships.

Waxman, Grant and Petersen are also coming off seasons in which they added new top 10 scores to the program record book in multiple events, including Petersen posting a new school record in the 1m in Utah’s January meet against BYU. At Pac-12’s Petersen crafted the program’s fourth-highest mark in the 3m to collect a bronze medal, a feat he also accomplished in the 1m competition.

Grant and Waxman are both in the top 10 in all three events in Utah history, including Waxman’s total of 311.15 in the 1m at the conference meet, which earned her a medal of her own and stands as the second-best performance in that event in program history. Waxman also moved up to second all-time in the 3m with a personal best of 348.90 against BYU.

Grant owns fourth in both the 3m and the platform and she put together a mark of 297.60 in the 1m at NCAA Zones, good enough for eighth all-time. That score also secured a spot for Grant at the 2023 NCAA Championships.

Among Utah’s newest divers is freshman Emilia Nilsson Garip, who arrived from Malmoe, Sweden after racking up a list of accomplishments that included snagging a pair of medals at the European Games. Garip earned the chance to represent her home country at the World Championships in July of 2023 as well.

“Anytime you get to compete against a non-conference team like LSU at home, it’s going to be exciting,” said head diving coach Richard Marschner. “We’ve seen them at invites the past two years and it’ll be fun to go head-to-head with them straight up. Both teams are so strong and even though it’s really early in the season, we’ll be ready to compete and hopefully make a statement.”

In the Pool
Utah’s swimmers have already gotten their season started, participating in the CMU Intermountain Shootout on Sept. 29-30. On the women’s side, the Utes won three of the shootout’s four relays and Norah Hay and Summer Stanfield both picked up victories on each day of the event. Erin Palmer, Reagan Cathcart and Krystal Lieu also collected wins during the team’s time in Colorado.

The squad’s men’s swimmers were led by Jaek Horner, who left The Centennial State with three total triumphs, including two trips to the winner’s circle on the final day. Nick Chirafisi made his mark in his first collegiate meet, taking first place in the 500 freestyle and the 200 free and the quartet of Will Woodall, Ethan Smith, Matthew Dedering and Evan VanBrocklin took first place in the men’s 400 free relay.

Looking Ahead
Utah’s divers will be competing against Arizona on Oct. 10, while Utah’s swimmers will have their next chance to compete on Oct. 21 at the MPSF Open Water Swimming Championships.