Utah Men's Swimming & Diving Season Recap

4/6/2011 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

April 6, 2011

The Ute men's swimming and diving team finished its 2010-11 campaign with an 0-5 record in conference and 3-8 overall.

"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."

After starting the season at the BYU Freshman-Sophomore exhibition meet, the Utes competed at the Mesa State Invitational Shoot-Out immediately after where they were defeated by Air Force, but came out on top of both Mesa State and Adams State. The Ute men broke three El Pomar Natatorium records in the 400 free relay (Bjorn Gunnarsson, Garret Beaman, Andy Lamb, Brent Murray), the 100 back (Major Robinson), the 200 breast (Garrett Peterson), the 100 free (B. Murray), and the 100 fly (Karson Applin).

Next, the Utes fell to Denver in a close meet (151-141) where Eric Murray topped his collegiate career's best times in his freestyle events. Notre Dame then beat Utah (184-116), despite strong races and season-best times posted by the Utes.

At the Arena Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., in November, the Ute men finished 10th overall with 267.50 points. Utah continued to have strong relay performances while continuing to post season-best times. Robinson, Peterson and B. Murray earned top-20 spots in at least one of their individual events. While the swimmers competed in Long Beach, Brandon Stoppelmoor represented the Utah divers at the Wildcat Diving Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., where he placed 25th in the 1-meter dive (222.35).

To end the fall semester, Eric Bonicelli and Eric Murray helped lead the Utes to a victory against Seattle (155-122).

Although it was another close meet between the Ute men and the TCU, the Horned Frogs came out with the win to start the spring semester (171-123). Applin and B. Murray contributed to a couple winning races for the Utes while Nelson Foo won the 3-meter dive (370.13).

Despite the excitement surrounding the meet against Wyoming, the Cowboys went home with the win against the Utes (179-121). Applin, Gunnarsson, and Derek Lair all posted season-best times against Wyoming. The next morning, Air Force also defeated the Utes even though Foo and Stoppelmoor earned the top spots on the boards (152-142). Although the Ute men put up some great swims against the reigning conference champion, they fell short to the UNLV Rebels (179.5-111.5).

The final dual meet of the season was against in-state and conference rival, BYU. After touching in only microseconds behind the Cougars in some races and with Rick Mason punching out his best performances all season, the Utes ultimately lost to their rival.

The peak of the Ute men's season came during the 2011 Mountain West Conference Championships in Oklahoma City where they topped six school records and posted lifetime-best times as well as some NCAA-qualifying times across the board. The Utah men's swimming and diving team finished in fifth place overall at the MWC championships (471). Many all-time top-10 school records were posted by the Utah squad as well. The records broken include the 200 medley relay (Austin Fiascone, Peterson, Applin, and Gunnarsson - 1:28.88), the 400 medley relay (Robinson, Peterson, Applin, and B. Murray - 3:14.55), the 200 free relay (Beaman, B. Murray, Applin, and Gunnarsson - 1:20.08), the 400 free relay (Beaman, B. Murray, Applin, and Gunnarsson - 2:57.95), the 200 breast (Peterson - 1:59.19), and the platform dive (Foo - 297.20 points).

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

Six Ute men were named to the all-MWC team following the conference championships, including Peterson, Robinson, B. Murray, Applin, and Foo. The men's relays that made the all-conference team were the 200 and 400 free relays (Beaman, B. Murray, Applin, Gunnarsson), the 200 medley relay (Fiascone, Peterson, Applin, Gunnarsson), and the 400 medley relay (Robinson, Peterson, Applin, and B. Murray).

Foo and Stoppelmoor finished the season in March by competing at the NCAA Zone E Regional Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Stoppelmoor placed 18th in the 1-meter (513.15) while Foo, who barely missed the final round, took 19th place (248.93). In the 3-meter dive, both men qualified for the final round where Foo and Stoppelmoor wrapped up in 16th (611) and 17th place (607.65), respectively. Foo also placed 10th overall in the platform dive to end the competition (593.70).

-UU-