Utah Women's Swimming & Diving Season Recap

4/5/2011 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

April 5, 2011

The Ute women completed their 2010-11 campaign with 5-3 in conference dual meets and 8-6 overall this season.

"Both teams just got better and better," said head coach Greg Winslow. "I'm really happy with how they fought through dual meets. It's a fight that we haven't seen in our program in a long time."

The Utah women's swimming and diving team started the season with a win at New Mexico (236-228). At the BYU Freshman-Sophomore meet, Traycie Swartz broke into the all-time top 10 records for the first time in the 100 back.

The Ute women continued their winning streak against CSU and Denver. The teams alternated winning races before the final relays ultimately determined the outcome (160-140, 165-133). Hannah Caron won each of her events against CSU and Danielle Caldwell earned her first collegiate victory in the 100 back against Denver.

Notre Dame broke the Ute women's winning streak but the winning 400 medley relay of Samantha Zuch, Natalie Edge, Chardonnay Biter-Mundt, and Traycie Swartz was one of the fastest times in the conference in 2010-11.

In November, the Utes travelled to Long Beach, Calif., to compete in the Arena Invitational against 17 other universities. The Ute women finished in 13th place overall with 231 points. Swartz swam the second-fastest 100 back in school history while Jana Willsey edged her way onto the all-time top-10 records in the 400 IM. Edge and Caron both had top-20 finishes at the invitational. The women's Arena performances were compared with San Diego State's for a conference dual meet where the Ute women fell to the Aztecs (153-127).

At the Wildcat Diving Invitational, Kwan Ling Yu was the runner-up in the platform dive (216.30).

The Ute women had a back-to-back meets against Seattle and Arkansas to end the fall semester. They defeated the former but fell to the Razorbacks, who were ranked 17th nationally at the time, the following morning (190-104, 158-84).

Utah's women's team began 2011 training in Arizona for two weeks before competing in a tri-meet where it defeated Oregon State (165-97) but lost to Arizona State (165-96). The next meet against TCU was also an upset as the women kept getting out-touched by no more than a second. Ellis Walters, however, earned wins in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.

At the Power of Pink meet against Wyoming at Ute Natatorium, Utah broke the Cowgirl's winning streak against the Utes (160-140). Swartz broke the school record in the 100 back by a full second that night. The following morning, the Ute women were also able to overcome Air Force (155-120). Utah earned its third conference dual victory in a row by defeating UNLV in Las Vegas where Caron and Zuch stole the show (159-141).

In the final dual conference meet against BYU, the Ute relays dominated but individual events fell short to the Cougars (161-139).

The 2011 Mountain West Conference Championships, which took place in Oklahoma City in February, saw the Utes set six school records as well as a conference record. The Utah women ended up finishing in fifth overall at the conference championships (443). The school records broken include the 200 medley relay (Swartz, Zuch, Caron, and Edge - 1:40.42), the 400 medley relay which also broke the all-time conference record (Swartz, Otsuka, Caron, and Edge - 3:38.33), the 200 free relay (Kristina Evans, Zuch, Edge, and Swartz - 1:31.16), the 100 and 200 back (Swartz), and the 400 IM (Otsuka - 4:19.63). Most races for the Ute women resulted in NCAA-qualifying and season-best, if not lifetime-best, times from the Utah squad, many of which rewrote the all-time top-10 in the school record books. The other Utah women who posted school top-10 performances include Willsey (200 fly, 400 IM), Alyssa Woodliff (100 and 200 back), Kayla Buck (1650 free, 400 IM), Sarah Boylen (200 fly), and Nicole Ligeza (200 breast).

"It was a nice way to wrap up the Mountain West meet," stated Winslow.

After the championships, seven women were named to the all-MWC team including swimmers Edge, Caron, Otsuka, Zuch, Swartz, and divers Walters and Yu. Three of the Ute women's relays made the all-conference team as well: 200 free relay (Evans, Zuch, Edge, Swartz), the 400 free relay (Edge, Evans, Caron, and Swartz), and the 400 medley relay (Swartz, Otsuka, Caron, and Edge).

Walters and Yu represented the Utah women's squad at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships, which took place in Minneapolis, Minn. Walters showed marked improvements from the previous year by placed 16th in the 3-meter dive (278.8) and 15th in the 1-meter (504.15).

Caron was the only Ute to be invited to compete at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, in the 200 IM, 100 fly, and 200 fly events. She is one of the few women in Utah history to compete at nationals. Caron swam the second-fastest time in her life 100 fly to place 30th (53.49). In the 200 fly, she placed 29th when she posted a personal best of 1:57.98, which is the second-fastest time in school history.

-UU-