Utah Swimming and Diving Notes

1/10/2006 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

Jan. 10, 2006

THIS WEEK:

The University of Utah swimming and diving teams resume their Mountain West Conference season by hosting New Mexico and TCU Friday and Saturday at Ute Natatorium. The women's teams are slated to start at 5 p.m. on Friday, while the men and women host TCU on Saturday at 11 a.m. Saturday will be Senior Day for the men as they compete in their last home meet of the season.

The Utah women's team finished the fall campaign with a 3-1 overall record and a 2-0 conference mark, while the men hold a 2-1 overall record and are 0-1 in conference dual meets.

SCOUTING NEW MEXICO AND TCU:

The Lobos enter the meet with a 1-6 overall record, 0-4 in conference meets. The Lobos have faced Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State and San Diego State. Last year the Utes defeated the Lobos 167-128 in Albuquerque at the opening meet of the spring semester for the Lobos.

TCU's women's team holds a 6-1 overall mark, 4-1 MWC, while the men are 1-2 overall and in conference meets. TCU and Utah did not meet last year.

QUOTING HEAD COACH Michael Litzinger:

"We're excited to be at home and racing again. We have two great meets on tap for this weekend with New Mexico and TCU. It will be the last home meet for our senior men and we're looking to send them off with a win."

ACADEMICALLY INCLINED:

The University of Utah swimming and diving teams saw its athletes honored when 27 Utes were named to the Athletics Academic Honor for the Fall 2005 semester. More than half of those honored were also named to the Dean's List, chalking up a 3.5 grade-point average or better.

Leading the way was Matthew Bailey, Jeremy Clark, Jacob Jewett, Tanner Folster, David Maasberg, Nick Ortman, Sterling Richards, Amy Barefield, Anna Braszkiwiecz, Adrienne Coburn, Raquel MacArthur, Marissa Martin, Jennifer Trescott and Amber Walker with Dean's List honors.

Folster and Martin each recorded perfect 4.0's this past fall.

Also making the honor roll is as follows: Andrew Brown Andrew Cole Michel DeCarolis Seth Halsey Andrew Jones Ricky Nerud Adam Oliver Nick Philpot Meghan Demchuk Jennifer Fredsall Leah Jensen Alison McInturff Lisa Wight

CLEAN SWEEP:

The University of Utah swimming and diving programs made a clean sweep of the MWC weekly awards on December 7 after the Notre Dame Invitational. Jonathan Larsen and Amber Walter being named MWC Men's and Women's Swimmer of the Week, respectively, while Sterling Richards and Kelsey Patterson garnered MWC Men's and Women's Diver of the Week.

Larsen notched two individual victories at the Notre Dame Invitational. He set a new school record in the 100 free of 44.07 seconds, which also provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA meet. Larsen's time in the 100 free also ranks third all-time in the MWC record book. Larsen also finished the 50 free with a time of 20.60 to claim top honors. The senior also competed on the men's 200 free relay team that finished with a time of 1 minute, 23.05 seconds to place second. Larsen helped the Utes win the 400 free relay (3:01.98), edging out Notre Dame's team by 3.40.

Richards set two Utah school records in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. The Salt Lake City native won the 1-meter board with 376.90 points. He posted 400.95 points in the 3-meter.

Walter posted wins in three of the four individual events she competed in and helped the Utes post wins in two relay events. Walter won the 50 free (23.18), the 100 breast (1:03.15) and the 100 free (50.48) to provisionally qualify for the NCAA meet in all three events. Her times were also MWC season-best marks. Walter's times in the 50 free and 100 free rank as the fourth and fifth all-time best marks in the MWC, respectively. Walter helped Utah set a school record in the 200 free relay with a time of 1 minute, 33.49 seconds, which is also an NCAA `B' cut. The junior competed on the 400 free relay team that took top honors with a 3:49.02 mark.

Patterson set a new school record in the 1-meter diving event by posting 305.30 points. She also won the 3-meter by edging out Notre Dame's Tara Hyer by 8.35 points after tallying 321.80 points.