Utah vs BYU – Relay Exhibition
- Friday, September 24, 2021
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Results
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
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 3×50 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 4×100 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 (PDF).
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.
Courtesy: BYU Athletics
SALT LAKE CITY – BYU’s swim and dive team traveled to the Ute Natatorium on Friday, Sept. 24 for an exhibition relay meet.
“Both the men and women’s swim/dive teams brought energy and heart to Salt Lake tonight,” said BYU interim head coach Shari Skabelund. “They raced hard and were there for each other. It was a fun night watching the hard work pay off.”
The non-scoring meet gave both teams an opportunity to compete without the usual pressure of scored events, while still evaluating their performance going into the regular season.
The meet included irregular events and BYU’s relay teams took first place in five. They overcame the Utes to win the men’s 3×50 yard breaststroke relay (1:16.40), men’s 500-yard crescendo relay (4:02.14), men’s 400-yard 4×100 IM relay (3:25.70), mixed 200-yard medley relay (1:36.14) and mixed 200-yard diver relay.
The Cougars will face Utah again later in the season.
BYU will open its regular season in Colorado for the Intermountain Shootout Invitational. The competition will begin on Friday, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. MDT and continue Saturday, Oct. 2, at 10 a.m. MDT.