Utah Swim & Dive Turns Away USC on Senior Day

Saturday, February 17

Salt Lake City, UT

11:00 AM

University of Utah

156

142

USC

Photo by: Axe Tang/Utah Athletics

2/17/2024 2:33 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving

Results

Utes battle their way to 156-142 triumph

SALT LAKE CITY – Seven different Utes posted at least one first-place finish and the University of Utah men's swimming and diving team capped off the day with a clutch win in the 400 free relay to secure a 156-142 victory over the USC Trojans on Saturday afternoon inside the Ute Natatorium in Salt Lake City.

"The guys did a really nice job today," said coach Jonas Persson, "and stepped up in so many events and were able to pull off the win. I think the guys have great confidence, great momentum and a great team culture and I think that was what ultimately led them to the win today."

The matchup started with points already on the board for both sides, as preliminary diving scores from the UCLA Diving Invite were used to calculate marks for each squad's divers on the 1m and 3m and Utah's Elias Petersen ended up atop the leaderboard in the latter event.

The Utes' first swimming win on this Senior Day came courtesy of senior Dylan Becker, who won the 1000 free in 9:20.83 and that was immediately followed by a triumphant effort in the 200 free by Jakub Walter, thanks to a mark of 1:38.02.

After the Trojans came away with the 100 back, another Utah senior, Jaek Horner, got the home team back in the win column by clocking in at 53.53 in the 100 breast and Evan VanBrocklin kept the momentum going by besting the field in the 200 fly in 1:45.55. Another USC victory, this one in the 50 free, was countered by consecutive Utah wins, first in the 100 free in 45.00 by Davis Stachelek and then thanks to Brandon Miller, who clocked in at 1:46.07 in the 200 back.

Two more individual triumphs were pocketed by the Utes, as Nick Chirafisi touched the wall first in the 500 free in 4:30.53 and VanBrocklin's time of 47.90 in the 100 fly was good enough to put him in the winner's circle, but the Utes still only led by five heading into the day's finale, the 400 free relay. In that race, Will Woodall, Stachelek, Matthew Dedering and Horner combined to best the Trojans with a mark of 2:57.41 to seal a senior day victory.

"As a coach," said Persson, "I did not have to tell them a lot today and didn't have to motivate them for the meet because the guys do the job ahead of them and were ready to go."

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