Utah Women's Swimming and Diving Season Recap

4/14/2008 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

April 14, 2008

Under first-year head coach Greg Winslow, the Utah women's swimming and diving team completed a great 2007-08 campaign. The Utes finished the season with a third-place finish at the 2008 Mountain West Conference Championships and served notice that this young team will be a contender for years to come.

Utah ended the regular season with a record of 6-5 overall and 5-3 in MWC competition. The preseason poll tabbed Utah as third in the conference and the Utes delivered on that by jumping from fourth to third on the final day of competition at the conference championship meet.

The women opened up the season with a 137-104 win over New Mexico. In the meet, the Utes trailed early but rallied to win the final six events to beat the Lobos, including the 200 medley relay team winning by .1 seconds to start the charge which eventually led to the opening victory. Utah then lost the next two meets, falling against Arkansas 176-121 and Denver 163-137. The losses were the first dual meet defeats since 2005, ending an incredible run for the Utes.

Against UNLV Natalie Edge won the 50 free and Jennifer Fredsall won the 100 fly, while Kwan Ling Yu swept the diving boards before falling to the Rebels 159-136.

The following weekend Utah beat both Boise State and San Diego State. Jessica Moon and Shannon McQueen won three events each, while Fredsall won two, boosting the Utes to 3-3 overall. At the midseason UNLV Invitational, Karly Roberts won the 1650 free to highlight the three-day meet.

Utah won three of its next four over conference opponents, beating TCU 141-95, Colorado State 169.5-130.5 and Air Force 174-118. The Utes wrapped up the season with a loss to BYU 190-110. In the final meet McQueen won the 100 and 200 back while Fredsall won the 100 fly.

At the MWC Championships the Utes set three school records, had several athletes swim provisional NCAA qualifying times and had two divers qualify for zone regionals. Utah opened up with the 800 free relay team of Edge, McQueen, Annie VanLeeuwen and Kristina Evans setting a new school record with a time of 7:22.44. Their time was over a second better than the previous mark. They placed second in the event.

On day three of the championships, Fredsall won the 100 fly with a school record time of 54.07. Fredsall's win was the first for the team and her time was an NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time.

On the final day of competition Utah's 400 free relay team broke another school record with a time of 3:22.48, placing second. The team consisted of Edge, VanLeeuwen, Evans and Fredsall. Their time was also an NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time. Edge also won the 100 free with a time of 49.76.

On the diving end, Yu won the platform diving by five points. She scored 218.60 points to give Utah its first diving win of the championships. Both Yu and teammate Anna Braszkiewicz qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Regionals. At the regionals Yu placed 16th in the platform diving. Both Braszkiewicz and Yu finished in the top-40 in the one and three-meter dives.

Utah landed 12 individuals and five relay teams on the all-MWC team, including: Michelle Blair, Braszkiewicz, Adrienne Coburn, Edge, Fredsall, Beth Gunderson, Melissa Helmers, McQueen, Maiya Otsuka, Caitlin Tidwell, VanLeeuwen and Yu. The 200, 400 and 800 free relay teams earned conference honors as well as the 200 and 400 medley relay teams.

Overall the Utes have set the stage for a bright future. The 2007-08 season showed that the young team will only get better and with the foundation in place Utah looks to only get better.