Upcoming Event: Men's Swimming & Diving versus Alumni Meet on October 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
10:00 AM
Men's Swimming & Diving
vs Alumni Meet
Saturday, November 1
Salt Lake City, Utah
1:00 PM
University of Utah
vs
Denver
Utah Women Continue Winning Streak, Defeat Nationally Ranked Denver
11/1/2008 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Nov. 1, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The University of Utah women's swim team extended its win streak to six meets and moved to 6-0 on the season with a 167-132 win against nationally-ranked Denver Saturday at Ute Natatorium. The men's swim team also performed well but they eventually fell to the men from Denver, 175-123.
"Denver beat us pretty solid last year. For the women to go out and dominate like they did, it's definitely a step forward to where we want to be at the end of the year," said Head Coach Greg Winslow.
The women won 12 of 16 events, starting off with finishing in the top two spots of the 400 medley relay. In first was the team of Beth Gunderson, Maiya Otsuka, Whitney Lopus, and Natalie Edge (3:51.10) and the second place team consisted of Sarah Cox, Chelsea Peterson, Jen Fredsall and Kristina Evans (3:56.86).
Following the medley relays, Hannah Caron and Annie VanLeeuwen took the first two spots in the 200 free with times of 1:51.67 and 1:52.94, respectively. In the 100 breast, Maiya Otsuka and Chelsea Peterson tied for second with a time of 1:07.51, just a hundredth of a second behind the first-place finisher.
Whitney Lopus continued her great season with four first place finishes, the 400 medley, the 200 fly (2:05.07), the 500 free (5:02.78), and the 400 free relay (3:27.34).
"I've been doing some new stuff, lifting weights and other things, to get myself faster," said Lopus, "I'm faster at this point of the season than I ever been, and I'm happy where I am, but I'm never really satisfied. I want to be faster and faster."
The Utah divers dominated on the boards again, with Anna Braskiewicz finishing first in the 1 meter dive with a score of 245.47 and Queenie Yu in second, scoring 224.62. In the 3 meter dive Utah placed the top three spots, with Braskiewicz in first, Yu in second and Jessica Schenk in third.
The women continued to roll along through the meet, having Edge finish first (24.31) and VanLeeuwen finish second (24.41) in the 50 free and the same in the 100 free, with times of 52.34 and 52.71 respectively.
Gunderson also continued to perform well throughout the meet, taking first in the 100 back (57.93) and second in the 200 back (2:06.02).
"Beth had a great meet today, and so did Annie VanLeeuwen. The way [Annie] anchored the last relay was great. It was good to see our fourth swimmer perform so well," said Winslow.
Other top performers were Otsuka, who finished first in the 200 breast (2:21.22) and second in the 400 IM (4:34.08) and Sarah Cox in the 200 back with a first place finish (2:05.48).
The men started the first half of the meet strong, placing second in the 400 medley relay (3:26.55) and having Eric Bonicelli finishing second in the 1000 free (9:51.34) and Marco Ferraro finishing third (9:53.15). They followed that up with second, third, and fourth place times in the 200 free, with Simon Oberholzer finsihing second (1:44.15) , Adam Oliver in third, (1:44.46) and Eric Murray fourth (1:45.00).
Vlas Lezin and Major Robinson continued to keep the meet close with Lezin taking second 53.38) and Robinson finishing fourth (54.43) in the 100 back. John Baque also added to the score in a big way by winning the 100 breast (57.90) with Michael DeCarolis finishing third (58.74). Oberholzer and Bonicelli took the top two spots in the 200 fly, with times of 1:55.70 and 1:55.97, respecitively. Geroge Evans finished in a very close second in the 50 free (22.02), behind the winner by a few tenths of a second.
With the score 53-40, Denver stormed back and won seven out of the next eight events. Baque provided the only individual first place finish in the second half of the meet in the 200 breast (2:06.55). Evans finished second in the 100 free (48.16) and Ferraro and Murray tied for third with a time of 48.63. DeCarolis finished third in the 200 breast (2:13.53) and Ferraro (4:46.27), Bonicelli (4:53.54), and Rick Mason (4:56.52 ) finished second, third and fourth in the 500 free.
The final race of the meet, the 400 free relay, was the most exciting of the night, with the men coming from behind to take first by a few tenths of a second.
"This was a huge step forward for the men today. We need to learn to get our hand on the wall before other guys, and that will come with practice and maturity," said Winslow. "If we continue to progress the way we are, we'll be right where we want to be by the end of the season."
Utah's next meet will be against UNLV on November 15th in Las Vegas. The Utes' next home meet will be January 23 against Wyoming.
Players Mentioned
Freestyle/Butterfly
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IM/Fly/Free
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Backstroke
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Free
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Free
/ Men's Swimming & Diving
Backstroke/IM
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Free
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Freestyle/Butterfly
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IM/Fly
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Breast
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Backstroke/Free
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Freestyle/Butterfly
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