Utah Men's Swim Falls To No. 2 California
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah swimming continued its season against another top-ranked team, this time welcoming No. 2 California to the Don Reddish Pool on Friday afternoon. The Utah men fell to the Golden Bears 166-95 in Salt Lake City in the squad's second dual meet of the season.
"We swam really hard today," head coach Joe Dykstra said. "They are the No. 2 team in the country for a reason, but I'm really proud of some of our scores today. We didn't back down against a really talented team and will look to build on the performance against UNLV next."
Despite the loss, Utah recorded several strong individual performances. Sophomore Marko Kovacic won the third event of the day, taking the 200 freestyle in 1:38.73 to get some momentum for the Utes. Later on in the dual, the Utes added back-to-back wins with Dylan Becker taking the 500 free in 4:41.31, while Santiago Contreras followed that with a win in the 100 fly (49.19).
Utah picked up a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay, which was swam by Andrei Ungur, Jaek Horner, Cooper deRyk and Finn O'Haimhirgin (1:29.89). Becker added a third-place finish in the 1000 free (9:42.83) before later winning the 500 free and Ungur finished third in the 100 back (49.16).
Jaek Horner led Utah in the 100 breast (57.06) and Ben Waterman did so in the 200 fly (1:53.25) where both Utes finished third. O'Haimhirgin finished second in the 100 free (45.56) and third in the 50 free (20.97) to finish as the top Ute in both events. Also finishing in the top three for Utah was Parker McOmber in the 200 back (1:51.43) and Baylor Lewis in the 200 breast (2:06.46). Lewis also had an exceptional showing in the 400 IM (4:07.12) where he finished second.
Utah's top 400 free relay team of O'Haimhirgin, Kovacic, Contreras and Lucas Calderon finished in second place with a time of 3:02.14 to end the meet. For full results, click here.
The Utah men will swim at UNLV in two weeks, while the women will host California on Friday, Nov. 5 at 12 p.m. MT at Ute Natatorium.