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, January 11
Salt Lake City, UT
12 p.m.
University of Utah
182.5
vs
79.5
UCSB
Photo by: Axe Tang/Utah Athletics
Utah Swim and Dive Finds Four Wins
1/11/2025 4:42 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving
Swimmers took down UCSB and UCLA for first time in program history
SALT LAKE CITY– The University of Utah swimming and diving program showed out in four meets today, the diving Utes won the Utah Diving Invite, men's swimming team found a 182.5 to 79.5 victory against UCSB and the women's team crushed UCLA and UCSB 158-142 and 209-91 on Saturday afternoon in the Ute Natatorium.
"It was a great day today," said head coach Jonas Persson. "The whole team stepped up, the divers performed outstanding both days and the swimmers, especially on the women's side, got the job done. On the men's side, they raced well and raced hard."
The first competition of the day was the preliminary round of the diving invite, where the top eight divers on both boards would continue on to finals. For the Utes, Holly Waxman, Callie Eaglestone, Kathryn Grant, Sydney Kowalski, Attila Bernatsky, Jesco Helling and Elias Petersen earned a place in finals.
"We capped off an incredible weekend with two more wins against some very tough opponents and a sweep for the women in prelims," said head diving coach Richard Marschner. "I'm most happy because we dove very well and disciplined."
Dive In(vite) on 1m
Three for 3m
"Becoming great is mostly about raising your floor and we have taken it up a level to where even our mistakes are still scoring well. We had several "misses" that still scored 6.5-7, which is incredible," said Marschner. "I'm very appreciative of Wisconsin, UCLA and BYU for coming out and giving all of our teams an incredible opportunity to have a great competition."
On the swimming side, the Utes walked away with the other three successes—all of which are the first wins against these schools in program history. The female Utes slashed a four-year record that was previously in UCLA's favor, taking the first triumph since 2018.
Utah women vs. the Californias
UCSB Men Go Down
"It's still early in the season and we have a lot of meets to go, but again, we're in a really good place and I'm excited to keep building this momentum," said Persson.
Looking Ahead
The divers will be traveling to Berkeley, California to take part in the Cal Diving Invitational on Jan 16-18, while the swimmers will host the University of Denver on Jan. 17 in the Ute Natatorium at 3 p.m.
Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @UTAHswimdive | Instagram: @utahswimdive | Facebook: Facebook.com/UtahUtesSwimDive), and the official mobile app of Utah Athletics, Utah360 -- download here.
"It was a great day today," said head coach Jonas Persson. "The whole team stepped up, the divers performed outstanding both days and the swimmers, especially on the women's side, got the job done. On the men's side, they raced well and raced hard."
The first competition of the day was the preliminary round of the diving invite, where the top eight divers on both boards would continue on to finals. For the Utes, Holly Waxman, Callie Eaglestone, Kathryn Grant, Sydney Kowalski, Attila Bernatsky, Jesco Helling and Elias Petersen earned a place in finals.
"We capped off an incredible weekend with two more wins against some very tough opponents and a sweep for the women in prelims," said head diving coach Richard Marschner. "I'm most happy because we dove very well and disciplined."
Dive In(vite) on 1m
- Waxman earned her second medal of the weekend, taking the top spot on the 1m springboard. After her prelims performance earned the number one seed, she refused to step down and took over finals as well. Waxman ended her six-dive list with a total score of 292.25.
- Taking second in the prelims, Grant earned a spot in the top eight for finals. During her second list, her front 2 ½ pike brought in 52 points to her score, giving her the bronze medal.
- In her first home invitational, Eaglestone showed out. After taking first on 3m on day one, she helped sweep during prelims. She ended finals with a 254.55 and a fourth-place finish, after her first two dives, an inward 1 ½ and a front 1 ½ with a double twist, brought in 93.60 points.
- Kowalski grabbed the eighth spot in prelims and stayed consistent, taking eighth again in finals.
Three for 3m
- Petersen went in to the finals in the top seed and locked his gold medal down, finishing with 373.75, more than forty points ahead of second-place. Averaging 62 points a dive, his outlier was a front 2 ½ with a full twist, commonly referred to as full out, which brought in 67.5 points to his overall total.
- Jumping from fourth in prelims, Helling stole the silver medal for Utah. His first dive brought the wow-factor, adding 70.50 points to his total of 329.20.
- Bernatsky earned his first-ever place in finals during a collegiate competition, finishing prelims in seventh. His final dive solidified his eight-place standing, an inward 2 ½ pike that bumped his score to 255.95.
"Becoming great is mostly about raising your floor and we have taken it up a level to where even our mistakes are still scoring well. We had several "misses" that still scored 6.5-7, which is incredible," said Marschner. "I'm very appreciative of Wisconsin, UCLA and BYU for coming out and giving all of our teams an incredible opportunity to have a great competition."
On the swimming side, the Utes walked away with the other three successes—all of which are the first wins against these schools in program history. The female Utes slashed a four-year record that was previously in UCLA's favor, taking the first triumph since 2018.
Utah women vs. the Californias
- The first win for Utah came in the women's 1,000-yard freestyle with Chloe Thompson swimming a 10:30.91 and Marlene Sandberg taking the silver with a 10:36.59.
- Erin Palmer took charge for the women, touching the wall for the gold at 23.09 in the 50-free. Which she quickly followed up with her second first-place, swimming 51.14 in the 100-yard free.
- For the women, Thompson took the top spot yet again, but this time in the 500 free with a 5:06.15.
- The cherry-on-top was the women's 200-free relay touching the wall at 1:32.75, sealing in the Utah women's win.
UCSB Men Go Down
- Owen Carlsen took the gold for the men in the same race, clocking a 9:35.18.
- The Utes earned gold and silver in the men's 200 free, thanks to Nick Chirafisi's 1:39.49 and Jakub Walter's 1:39.63.
- Daniel Yi swam a 55.92 in the 100-yard breaststroke, out-touching a UCSB swimmer for the top spot.
- In the 200-yard butterfly, the men earned the first Utah sweep with Evan VanBrocklin's 1:49.71, Nicholas Kjaeruff's 1:52.62 and Kelson Flynn bringing in the bronze with a 1:53.14.
- Davis Stachelek and Will Woodall snagged first and second with 21.05 and 21.16 in the 50-free.
- VanBrocklin earned his second gold of the afternoon with a 44.91 in the 100 free.
- In the men's 200 back-stroke, Brandon Miller swam a 1:49.53 for the top spot, with Strahinja Maslo not far behind at 1:51.25 for the bronze.
- The men earned their second sweep of the night in the 500-free, Chirafisi leading the way at 4:34.00, Arnholt grabbing second at 4:35.83 and Owen Carlsen bringing in third with a 4:39.70.
- Marshall Odom swam a 49.98 in the 100-yard butterfly, clocking the fastest time of the race.
- Utah's men shouldn't be counted out, they finished the night taking gold in the final relay, swimming a 1:22.14.
"It's still early in the season and we have a lot of meets to go, but again, we're in a really good place and I'm excited to keep building this momentum," said Persson.
Looking Ahead
The divers will be traveling to Berkeley, California to take part in the Cal Diving Invitational on Jan 16-18, while the swimmers will host the University of Denver on Jan. 17 in the Ute Natatorium at 3 p.m.
Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @UTAHswimdive | Instagram: @utahswimdive | Facebook: Facebook.com/UtahUtesSwimDive), and the official mobile app of Utah Athletics, Utah360 -- download here.
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