Utah Women Beat Arizona For First Time in Program History; Arizona Men Win

UTAH vs ARIZONA

• Friday, October 4th
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Short Course Yards
• Results

TEAM SCORES

WOMEN

1. Utah – 174
2. Arizona – 126

MEN

1. Arizona – 172
2. Utah – 129

Utah beat Arizona in a women’s dual meet for the first time in program history today in Salt Lake City. The Utes pulled off the win decisively as well, besting the Wildcats in a 174-126 decision.

Utah kicked off the meet by winning both the women’s and men’s 200 medley relays. In the women’s relay, Sarah Lott (26.12), Mariah Gassaway (28.95), Emma Lawless (25.01), and Leyre Casarin (23.08) teamed up to clock a 1:43.16, besting the Arizona A squad by over 2 seconds. The Utah men’s squad of David Fridlander (23.56), Andrew Britton (25.13), Cooper DeRyk (21.32), and Liam O’Haimhirgin (20.13) touched in 1:30.14, over 2.5 seconds ahead of the Wildcats.

Freshmen were pivotal in Utah’s win in the women’s meet. Charity Pittard won the women’s breaststroke with a 2:19.55, finishing 5 seconds ahead of the field. Pittard later won the 200 IM, posting a 2:05.53. Fellow Utah freshman Lizzy DeCecco won both diving events. In the 1 meter, DeCecco scored 255.30 points, posting the top score by over 22 points. She then scored a 249.98 in 3 meter, winning the event by 8 points.

Utah junior Leyre Casarin won both the women’s sprint free events. Casarin was the only swimmer to crack 24 seconds in the 50 free, claiming victory with a final time of 23.91. She went on to win the 100 free with a 52.09, beating out Arizona’s Kirsten Jacobsen by .52 seconds. Casarin went on to lead-off the winning Utah 400 free relay in 51.96.

Utah also swept the backstroke events. Sarah Lott took the 100 back in 55.12, then took 3rd in the 200 back in 2:04.90. Audrey Reimer won the 200 back in 2:02.16, after finishing 3rd in the 100 back with a 56.66.

Arizona freshman Hannah Farrow swept the women’s fly events. Farrow kicked off her individual performances with a 2:05.27 in the 200 fly, winning the event thanks to a 1:05.06 on the second 100. She went on to win the 100 fly in 57.44, after Utah’s Emma Lawless swam a 57.18, but was disqualified. Arizona’s Hannah Cox swept the women’s distance freestyles. In the 1000, Cox touched in 10:17.54, also even-splitting the race with 5:08.52/5:09.02 500 splits. Cox then swam a 5:01.73 to win the 500.

In the men’s meet, Arizona’s Brooks Fail won 3 individual men’s events on the day. Fail first took the men’s 1000 in 9:27.14, then turned around and won the next event, the 200 free, as well. In the 200, Fail clocked a 1:39.32 after coming home in 24.01. Fail then went on to win the 500 free, touching in 4:35.03, a full 5 seconds faster than he swam last week at the Arizona intrasquad.

Arizona’s Brendan Meyer swept the men’s fly events. Meyer started out with a 1:49.96 to win the 200 fly by roughly 4 seconds. He then posted a 49.66 in the 100 fly, touching as the only swimmer under 50 seconds. Teammate Sam Iida also won 2 individual events, taking the 200 breast and 200 IM. In the 200 breast, Iida clocked a 2:07.05, touching first by nearly a second. He then won the 200 IM in 1:53.81, out-pacing the field by over 2 seconds.

PRESS RELEASE – UTAH MEN:

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Men’s Swim and Dive dropped its season opener to Arizona today, 172-129.

“We opened really strong by winning the 200 medley relay,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “Liam O’Haimhirgin won the 100 free, Cooper DeRyk took the 50 free and David Fridlander performed well in his first competition since the Israeli Nationals. We are exceptionally young and there is going to be a learning curve as we red-shirt a couple of our key swimmers.”

The aforementioned 200 medley relay consisted of Fridlander, DeRyk, O’Haimhirgin and Andrew Britton and took first in 1:30.14. Fridlander also won the 100 back in 55.12 and took second in the 200 back (1:52.14), DeRyk won the 50 free (21.04), O’Haimhirgin won the 100 free (46.23) and Britton was second in the 100 breast (57.26).

Fridlander, DeRyk, O’Haimhirgin and his brother Finn were second in the 400 free relay (3:02.70) to cap the meet.

Rahiti De Vos and Ben Waterman both turned in a pair of top times for the Utah men. De Vos was 2nd in the 500 free (4:38.66) and third in the 200 free (1:42.41) while Waterman won the 100 fly (50.12) and took second in the 200 fly (1:53.38). Other strong performances were turned in by Tyler Klawiter (2nd, 1000 free, 9:30.80), Brody Lewis (2nd, 200 breast, 2:07.87) and Jaek Horner (3rd, 200 IM, 1:56.46).

Tony Chen was the top diver, finishing second in the 3m and third in the 1m events

The Utes travel to California for a meet next weekend against UCSB on Saturday.

“Both teams are traveling to orange County next week for fall break,” Dykstra added. “We expect a hard week of training and it will be a good bonding experience for everyone.”

PRESS RELEASE – UTAH WOMEN:

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Women’s Swim and Dive earned its first win ever against Arizona with a 174-126 result on Friday.

“This is really huge for us,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “Not many people thought this was possible. We have made incremental progress here at Utah. It is hard to build a program overnight, it takes time to build that up. Today showed our strong progress. We were a little shorthanded but our freshmen, Charity Pittard, Lizzy DeCecco, Leyre Casarin, Maddie Woznick and Kayla Miller, really stepped up.”

In that 50 free, Casarin took first in 23.91 while Woznick was the runner-up and Miller placed third. Casarin also captured the 100 free in 52.09 and was the anchor in the victorious 200 medley relay. Swimming with Sarah Lott, Mariah Gassaway and Emma Lawless, the quartet finished in 1:43.16

Pittard started her Utah career with wins in the 200 breast (2:19.55) and 200 IM (2:05.53), as well as a second place finish in the 100 breast (1:05.03). DeCecco was strong on the board with wins in the 1m (255.30) and 3m (249.98) events and Miller second in the 200 free (1:53.94). Casarin, Woznick and Miller joined Audrey Reimer in the 400 free relay, winning in 3:28.04. Reimer also won the 200 back with a time of 2:02.16.

Among the other returners, Lott won the 100 back in 55.12, Sara McClendon was the runner up in the 1000 free (10:20.62) and 500 free (5:03.04) and Christina Pick took second in the 200 fly (2:05.72) and third in the 100 fly (58.65).

The women head to Los Angeles next week for a pair of dual meets with No. 25 UCLA and No. 15 USC

PRESS RELEASE – ARIZONA MEN & WOMEN:

Tucson, Ariz. – The men proved victorious today over Utah, 171.50-128.50 and the women lost 174-126, for an even split in the dual meet. In total, the Cats tallied 18 wins. There were five swimmers and one diver with multiple wins in the meet.

Wildcat Wins

Brooks Fail had four event wins in the 200 Free, 500 Free, 1000 Free, and the 400 Free relay to close out the meet. Sam Iida proved victorious in the 100 Breast, 200 Breast, and the 200 I.M.

Brendan Meyer and Hannah Cox each placed first in two events of their own. Meyer winning the 100 and 200 Fly while Cox won the 500 and 1000 Free.

Fantastic Freshman

Freshman Diver Bjorn Markentin had a phenomenal collegiate debut, taking home victories in both of his events, the 1 and 3-meter dives.

Freshman Swimmer Hannah Farrow also had an amazing collegiate debut, placing first in the 100 and 200 Fly.

Upcoming Schedule

Next up for the Wildcats is their first two home meets on October 25th against Hawai’i at 2 p.m. MST. and October 26th against Denver at 2 p.m. MST.

Follow Arizona Swimming and Diving: For further coverage of Arizona swimming and diving, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and follow the team’s Twitter (@ArizonaSwimDive) and Instagram (@ArizonaSwimDive) accounts.