Swim & Dive in Firm Control Heading into Final Day of Big Al Invite

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Utah swim & diving team completed day two of the Princeton Big Al Invitational on Saturday night showcasing several strong performances throughout the day as Utah continued an aggressive start to the season.
 
Through 28 events, the Utah men held a nearly 50-point lead on host Princeton, totaling 748.5 points total. The women led by over 100 points, finishing the day at 678 even. In their first-time swimming at the invite, the Utes ultimately continued to impress.

Men - Team Rankings

Women - Team Rankings 

Men
Taking home the first event title of the afternoon was the men's 200 medley team. Andrei Ungur led it off for the Utes with Andrew Britton, Cooper Deryk and Finn O'Haimhirgin swimming hard to close out the victory in 1:24.47. The men's B squad finished fourth in 1:26.95 (JP Hynes, Jaek Horner, Santi Contreras, Lucas Calderon).
 
Baylor Lewis and Jackson Cunningham earned fifth (3:53.04) and sixth-place (3:53.91) finishes in the 400 IM, respectively. In the 100 butterfly, Utah saw four Utes finish in the top-10. Ben Waterman led the charge finishing in 46.48 to claim second as Andrei Ungur finished fifth in 47.56. Deryk and Contreras rounded out the Ute top finishers in seventh (48.15) and eighth (50.23).
 
Freshman Marko Kovacic, who redshirted last year and is capable of swimming nearly a dozen events, won the 200 free (1:35.61). O'Haimhirgin placed two back in third (1:36.93) as Noah Carlson earned sixth (1:39.09) to grow the Utah lead.
 
Going back-to-back, Utah followed up the strong performance in the 200 free with a victory in the 100 breast courtesy of Jaek Horner (53.04). Andrew Britton and Lex Nietling-Hernandez put up solid performances placing sixth (54.83) and seventh (55.03), respectively.
 
Providing the men their third victory of the day was Andrei Ungur taking home the title in the 100 back (46.06). Hynes finished third (47.17) with Ryan Garstang and Parker McOmber finishing inside the top-10 in sixth (48.52) and seventh (48.68).
 
Moving to the diving well, Tony Chen got the Utes started with a second-place finish on the 3m dive tallying 392.40 points. Freshman Ben Smyth was fourth at 290.05 and McDivitt captured fifth scoring 337.00.  
 
Women
The women swam well on the day, with the relay team of Emma Lawless, Madison Story, Katie Hale, and Leyre Casarin taking third in the 200-medley relay. The B relay team of Norah Hay, McKenna Gassaway, Kate Leary and Madeline Woznick secured sixth in 1:42.80.
 
Charity Pittard lead the women of Utah in the 400 IM finishing fourth in 4:20.92. Mandy Gebhart and freshman Milla Ruthven placed sixth (4:25.37) and seventh (4:27.60), respectively.
 
Lawless had another strong performance in the 100 fly earning fourth in 54.61. The lady Utes saw three finish in the top-8 of the 200 free with Cameron Daniell touching first in 1:50.53 to capture fifth. Leyre Casarin and Molly Jacobson rounded out the top finishes in seventh (1:50.78) and eighth (1:51.22), respectively.   
 
Kayla Miller stood out finishing second in the 100 breast (1:02.58) as Pittard finished two back in third with a time of 1:02.69. A pair of freshmen touched nearly the same time as Anelise Hedges and Madison Story secured seventh (1:04.11) and eighth (1:04.22).
 
Lawless made her presence known again in the 100 back finishing third (54.44) with Gebhart touching right after in 54.70, good for third.
 
The women of Utah closed out day 2 with a strong performance from the 800 free relay team. Miller, Daniell, Jacobson and Kabacy all swam well to finish in third in 7:25.12.
 
Holly Waxman, in her first year with the team, continued to perform well by finishing fourth on the 1m dive (267.25). Waxman missed the podium by exactly one point and was followed behind by teammate Lexi Mills in seventh (250.85).
 
The Utah swim & dive team will close out the Big Al Invitational tomorrow with coverage on the prelims starting at 7:00 a.m. MT on ESPN+. The finals are slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. MT with coverage also being available on ESPN+.
 
Complete results from day two can be viewed here.

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