Utah Swimming & Diving Preps for MWC Championships

2/9/2011 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

Feb. 9, 2011

UPCOMING

Next up for the University of Utah swimming and diving team will be the Mountain West Conference Championships, which will be hosted at the OCCC Aquatic Center in Oklahoma City from Feb. 23 - 26.

LAST WEEK

The Utah swimming and diving team competed in the Deseret First Duel meet against BYU on Friday. Both men and women were defeated by the Cougars by scores of 156 to 143 and 161 to 139, respectively.

The swim of the night was Rick Mason's first-place finish in the 1000 free (9:37.46). Other first-place finishes by the Ute men included Brent Murray in the 50 free (21.13), Garret Beaman in the 100 free (46.46), Eric Murray in the 200 free (1:42.64), Eric Bonicelli in the 200 fly (1:53.77), Karson Applin in the 100 fly (50.14), Garrett Peterson in the 200 breast (2:06.45), and Nelson Foo in the 1-meter dive (307.80).

The relays for the men were really close races. In the 200 medley relay, the relay of Beaman, Peterson, Applin, and Brent Murray touched in a second-place finish (1:32.67) only three-hundredths of a second behind BYU's winning relay. Brent Murray, Bjorn Gunnarsson, Andy Lamb, and Beaman also finished in second place in the 400 free relay (3:05.43) only three-tenths of a second behind the winning relay.

The Ute women relays dominated the night with Traycie Swartz, Samantha Zuch, Hannah Caron, and Natalie Edge winning the 200 medley relay (1:43.52) and Edge, Zuch, Swartz, and Kristina Evans winning the 400 free relay (3:27.13).

Ute women who contributed wins on Friday include Edge in the 50 free (23.64), Maiya Otsuka in the 200 breast (2:19.95), Swartz in the 100 back (55.82) and the 100 free (50.90), Zuch in the 500 free (5:04.19), Caron in the 100 fly (55.43), and Ellis Walters who swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives with respective scores of 281.85 and 301.05.

QUOTING HEAD COACH Greg Winslow

"We've had a really fun and challenging schedule. We swam against some ranked teams in the country, being up against some of the best there are like Arkansas, Notre Dame, San Diego State and the team down south. The kids have definitely been tested. I'm happy with where they are at. They had a great Christmas training when we were down in Arizona. They've done a lot of hard work and now looking forward.

"This is the time of year every swimmer loves. They get to sleep in a lot more, the practices aren't as grueling, and we're all trying to fine-tune some stuff. The kids have a lot more energy because they are not beat down. Their bodies are starting to recover. They get rested for the first time in six to eight months, giving their bodies time to heal from all the weight lifting we've done, all the racing we've done, and grueling hard over the year. This is the first time their bodies have a chance to really heal, hopefully to get sharp and ready to go.

"In the water, we'll do some fine-tuning stuff like really work our turns, really work out break outs, and our dives and things like that. These are the things that the 20-hour rule doesn't let us get to in the school year. Outside the water, it's a lot of fun to be around the team. They get a lot more time in the locker rooms and we do team meals here and there. We're all really focused on goals and getting there.

"These two weeks are fun and stressful. We're already excited about conference. The key is that you get the right times and making sure that mentally, you're getting ready each day to be better. That you're not so excited to be here on Tuesday, but that you're looking down the road so you can handle the stress and pressure that's waiting there.

"Our biggest thing is how important rest is and how to recover now so that you get your body ready to go and be mentally ready to go back into the pool. It is three and a half days of competition. It's back and forth in the pool. You get yourself emotionally up. Some of the kids will swim four relays, three individual events twice. They'll be swimming 10 times in the course of those four days. They are expected to be mentally ready and on the edge. That's part of the challenge with these two weeks."

-UU-