Women Swim & Dive downed by No.6 Cal
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah women's swimming & dive team captured two event titles this afternoon as they fell to the sixth-ranked California Golden Bears, 160-100, inside Ute Natatorium.
"We had a solid day today and our schedule didn't get any easier bringing in another top six ranked team, who's been right there fighting for national titles over the last few years," head coach Joe Dykstra said. "They are loaded with national team members and Olympians but we went hard. We raced hard, went stroke for stroke in a lot of events and even came out with a win in a few of them."
It was a slow start for the Utes in the beginning of the meet, but the 200-medley squad of Emma Lawless, Madison Story, Katie Hale and Leyre Casarin touched third in a season-best time of 1:42.02.
Utah started to gain some momentum with a couple close third-place finishes in the 100 back from Lawless (56.06) and 100 breast from Pittard (1:04.69). Approaching the first break, Casarin captured the first victory of the day in a nail bitter finishing the 50 free in 23.35.
A team huddle looked to be exactly what the Utes needed as they came out of the break capturing a second and third place finish from Casarin (50.73) and Woznick (52.09), respectively, in the 100 free. One event later, Pittard (2:19.04) touched first in the 200 breast to secure the second victory of the day for Utah.
In the final four events, Utah would finish strong earning second-place finishes in all of them. Molly Jacobson finished the 500 free in 5:06.45, Lawless finished the 100 fly in 56.25, Sydney Rogness touched in 4:29.13 in the 400 IM and the 200 free relay team of Casarin, Woznick, Hale, and Miller finished in 1:33.69.
"I felt like we executed better than we did against Stanford a couple weeks ago, so that's progress in the right direction," said Dykstra. "Next up we have a big month of training before we are back and off to compete at Princeton with some rest and really swim fast for the first time out there."
All eyes now turn to the men's swim & dive team tomorrow morning as they take on the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas. The meet is set to begin at 11:00 a.m. MT with a live stream of the meet available for fans via YouTube.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Utah women's swim squad will be back in the pool Dec. 3rd-5th, as they travel to back east to Princeton, NJ, to compete at the Princeton Invitational.
The women's dive team will be in action Nov. 18th-20th, in Austin, Texas, for the Texas Diving Invitational.
For fans of the Utah men's/women's swimming and diving programs, follow the Utes on Twitter (@UTAHswimdive), Instagram (@utahswimdive) and Facebook (@UtahUtesSwimDive).
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