Utah Swimming & Diving Finishes Fall Semester

12/7/2010 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

Dec. 7, 2010

UPCOMING

The University of Utah swimming and diving team will use the last couple of weeks of the semester to focus on final exams. The next meet for the Utes will be on Jan. 8 against Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., to kick off the spring semester.

LAST WEEK

On Friday, the Utes defeated the Seattle Redhawks at Ute Natatorium with the Utah women scoring 190 to 104 and the Ute men scoring 155 to 122.

The women's 400 medley relay (Elizabeth Thompson, Nicole Ligeza, Hannah Caron, and Natalie Edge) and the 200 free relay (Edge, Traycie Swartz, Samantha Zuch, and Kristina Evans) opened and closed the meet with winning times of 3:56.60 and 1:36.67, respectively. Zuch also won the 1000 free (10:36.11), the 100 free (53.10), and the 50 free (24.61). Other victories for the Ute women include the 200 free by Chardonnay Biter-Mundt (1:55.39), the 200 fly by Jana Willsey (2:08.20), the 400 IM by Maiya Otsuka (4:37.48), and the 100 back (1:00.16) and 200 back (2:07.43) by Danielle Caldwell.

The men took home a win in the 200 medley relay with Major Robinson, Garrett Peterson, Karson Applin, and Andy Lamb at the helm (3:27.05). Robinson also won the 100 back (52.63) and the 200 back (1:52.93) while Peterson won the 100 breast (58.13) and the 200 breast (2:09.02). Other wins for the Ute men include the 500 free (4:46.34) and the 200 fly (1:54.24) by Eric Bonicelli, the 1000 free by Ryan Hansen (10:01.04), and the 100 free by Brent Murray (47.43).

On Saturday morning, the Ute women returned to Ute Natatorium to face Arkansas. The Razorbacks took home the win by a score of 158 - 84.

The Ute relays were successful in securing wins. Swartz, Zuch, Caron, and Edge won the 400 medley relay race (3:51.50), while Swartz, Zuch, Edge, and Kristina Evans won the 400 free relay (3:31.74). Other victories for the Ute women included the 50 free by Edge (24.12) and the 200 IM by Caron (2:08.05).

Ellis Walters was the highest-placing Ute woman on the diving boards, earning second place and posting an NCAA zone qualifying score in the 1-meter dive (273.45). She also finished third in the 3-meter dive (257.55).

QUOTING HEAD COACH Greg Winslow

"This week, we are going to work on getting 4.0's and hit the books as hard as we can. After that, we can get back to some hard work so we can prepare for the conference.

"At this point in the season, we have some injuries we are dealing with. We have been fighting to get through those and the end of the semester and finals.

"On the men's side, I was really pleased with how they went up against Seattle. They are a good team. Every single person stepped up and swam well. On the women's side, they got to swim some different events. It was fun to see them do that.

"It's great to have those meets out of the way, but they really showed the character of the team even in the loss against Arkansas. We understand what we need to fix. We had a talk about it after the meet. The girls are ready to really come together and have a great end to the year.

"We have Arizona State in January. We'll spend two weeks in Arizona, working on our training. The main reason we are going down there is to get some good training under our belts. They will be in the sunshine, out of the cold weather, and away from the daily grind of being a college athlete. Arizona also has an Olympic-sized pool and a ten-meter tower for our divers to go off of."

-UU-