SALT LAKE CITY – Utah kicked off its 2021 season on Friday with its annual relay exhibition meet against rival BYU, taking a total of 10 events to set the tone for the upcoming season. The meet marks the first time the Utah men and women have competed in the same meet since 2019.
"For September, as hard as we've been training, we're very encouraged about what's to come this season," head coach Joe Dykstra said. "This was a lot of fun. We haven't been able to do this for two years, so this was a special way to start the season."
Utah began the night with five-straight wins, including the women's 3x50 butterfly team of Emma Lawless, Kayla Miller, and Zofie Niemzcak, who cruised to the opening event win with a time of 1:16:20. The men's butterfly relay team of Marko Kovacic, Cooper DeRyk and Ben Waterman also finished first in 1:05.96. Utah's backstrokers got the job done in the next two races, while the women's top breast stroke team placed first as well to begin the night.
Utah's 400 freestyle relay of Leyre Casarin, Maddie Woznick, Miller and Audrey Reimer pulled in another victory (3:28.29), while the next two Utah teams managed to finish in second and third to edge both BYU squads. The Utah men continued the momentum and took the 400 free relay as well with a time of 3:02.18 (Santiago Contreras, Finn O'Haimhirgin, Lucas Calderon, Kovacic).
The Utes went 1-2-3 In the women's 500 crescendo relay and picked up the winning ways once again in the 4x100 IM relay where Miller, Charity Pittard, Madison Story and Milla Ruthven came away with the winning time of 4:00.08.
The night was capped with a win from the Utes in a mixed 200 free relay with DeRyk leading the group off, followed by Calderon and then Woznick and Casarin closing it out. The Ute men and women finished in 1:29.22 for the victory.
Another fun moment of the night was the mixed 200 yard diver relay, where the team of Jenner Pennock, Ben Smyth, Hanna Truax, and Lexi Mills came in third with a time of 1:56.40.
For full results from tonight's exhibition event, click here.
Both the men's and women's teams will begin conference play on the Friday, Oct. 15 with a home meet against Stanford. The following weekend Utah will host California, then hit the road for a dual meet at UNLV.