Four Utes Final in Berkeley, Swim Dominates Denver

Friday, January 17

Berkeley, Calif.

University of Utah

Cal Diving Invitational

Photo by: Axe Tang/Utah Athletics

Four Utes Final in Berkeley, Swim Dominates Denver

1/17/2025 7:47 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

Dive earns three medals at Cal Diving Invite

SALT LAKE CITY -- The University of Utah swimming and diving program had a domination of a day, the swimmers topped University of Denver, both teams winning by over 100 points at the Ute Natatorium and the divers collected four final spots and three medals in Berkeley, Calif. on Friday.

The swimming program hosted the University of Denver for the first time since 2020. The women's team currently sits on a 3-0 record over the Pioneers after today's 166-96 success. The men's team added to their overall record of 2-1 against Denver after tallying a 199-63 win.

As for the divers, the second day of competition consisted of the men taking on the 3m springboard and the women competing 1m, where the top twelve divers on both boards would continue on to finals. For the Utes, Holly Waxman, Kathryn Grant, Jesco Helling and Elias Petersen earned a place in finals.

"In terms of diving and swimming, we're in a great spot," said head coach Jonas Persson. "This meet was a challenge for our divers, but I know that once we get to conference and zones they're going to be ready to go. As for swimming, we're going to keep on refining our races, but a lot of people improved from last week. A lot of people who were out-touched last week were able to dig in and get a win today. So overall, I'm very pleased. "

At Cal

"Holly and Kat put on an amazing performance today and in finals especially," said head diving coach Richard Marschner. "They're proving to be one of the best 1-2 punches in the country and continue to show why they were two of the only nine women to be three event competitors t NCAAs last year. Elias was incredibly strong in both rounds on three-meter and was just shy of the 400 mark both times."

Two Peas in a (1m) Pod

After her preliminary list, Waxman went into finals in fifth-place. In finals, Waxman locked in and averaged 50.12 points each round, finishing her list sitting in first-place. Her total score came out to be 300.70, 0.15 in front of Grant in second-place.
Grant finished 1m prelims in third-place, averaging 48.41 points each round. In finals, she proved her consistency, averaging just over 50 points a dive. Her highest-scoring dive came in the second round, a reverse 1 ½ with a 1 ½ twist, bringing in 59.80 points. She finished with a silver medal, sitting just 0.15 below Waxman with a 300.55.
Callie Eaglestone finished her six-dive list with a final score of 237.80.
Sarah Kauffman rounded up a total of 229.40.
Sydney Kowalski ended with a score of 223.55.

On the 3m

Finishing in third-place in prelims, Petersen put his pedal to the medal and took the silver medal. His star power came out in his second dive, a front 2 ½ with a full twist, also referred to as a full-out, which earned 72 points. This bumped his average to 65.29 and his total to 391.75.
Helling grabbed tenth-place with a 318.00 on his way in to finals. In finals, he bumped himself into fifth, averaging 57.63 points each round. His highest-scoring dive, a front 3 ½ pike, accumulated 68.20 points to his overall score of 345.80.
Attila Bernatsky totaled his list out at 244.45.

"Performances like these at NCAAs will earn All-American honors, so I'm excited about what we can accomplish," said Marschner.

Back in SLC

"I'm happy with how we raced, we didn't back down or rest this meet. We went hard and everyone did what they were supposed to do," said Persson.

Women Take the Dub

The first win in the women's pockets was the 400-yard medley relay, coming in at 3:46.01.
Chloe Thompson finished in first for the 1,000-yard freestyle at 10:26.45. She collected her second gold in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:04.44.
Isabella Riso grabbed the gold in the 200-free with a 1:52.63.
In the 100-yard backstroke Norah Hay clocked a 56.03, grabbing the top spot, later she would finish the 200-back at 2:00.13 for her second gold.
Erin Palmer started a sweep for the women in the 100-breast with a 1:02.94. She later took the gold in the 100-free with a 51.07.
Julia Bartell finished first for the Utes in the 50-yard free, swimming 23.99, she would collect her second top finish in the 100-yard butterfly, touching in at 57.50.
Rylee McColley came back for a vengeance in the 200-breast with the top time of 2:19.50.
Ella Derby finished the individual races for the Utes with a win in the 200-yard IM, swimming in at 2:06.26.
Utah women then dominated the 200-yard free relay, coming in at 1:33.29, more than two second ahead of Denver.

Men Make it Rain

The men went 1-2 in the 400-medley relay, touching the wall at 3:18.75 and 3:23.31.
Owen Carlsen took gold with his 1,000-yard free time of 9:32.49. He would later collect a second first-place finish in the 500-free with a 4:38.38.
Evan VanBrocklin started two sweeps, one in the 200-free with a swim of 1:39.91 and another in the 100-free finishing with a 45.29.
Starting another sweep, Jackson Kehler touched in at 50.38 in the 200-back for a first-place finish.
In the 200-yard butterfly, Jakub Walter swam a 1:50.71 for the top spot.
Will Woodall swam a 21.01 for the gold in the 50-free.
Strahinja Maslo took the first finish in the 200-back, touching in at 1:50.18. He earned his second gold in the 200-IM with a finish of 1:52.08.
Caleb Gallagher earned his first career wins for Utah, one in the 200-breast at 2:04.10 and the other in the 100-breast, coming in at 56.23.
The Utes finished off the meet with a top finish in the 200-free relay, touching at 1:22.70.

Sweepers

VanBrocklin started the first sweep of the meet in the 200-free, Oskar Farkas came in second with 1:40.94 and Kellen Cameron took bronze touching in at 1:42.99.
In the 200-back, Kehler started the Utes off, Parker McOmber came in at 50.88 for the silver and Winston Sundeen snagged the bronze with 51.05. Brandon Miller touched in at 51.64 for the fourth seat in the sweep.
The women tagged in for their first sweep, Palmer leading the way in the 100-breast, Alyssa Sorenson coming in second with 1:03.59 and McColley touching for third at 1:03.86.
Clocking his second sweep, VanBrocklin finished first in the 100-free, Nick Chirafisi took second at 45.81, Davis Stachelek earned the bronze with a 46.01 and for that extra fourth seat, Layton Sealman came in at 46.79.

"It's certainly going to be a big step-up next week to swim SMU and Pitt, it's going to be a tough meet but we're ready for it," said Persson. "We've had a few meets where we've been able to refine our swims, but that is going to be a be a great challenge. We have a couple more meets left in the season, so I think this will be good for us, but ultimately, we're in a good place."

Looking Ahead
The divers will compete tower at Berkeley on Saturday morning. After this weekend, the Utes will travel to Dallas for a tri-meet against Southern Methodist University and University of Pittsburg on Jan. 24-25.

Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @UTAHswimdive | Instagram: @utahswimdive | Facebook: Facebook.com/UtahUtesSwimDive), and the official mobile app of Utah Athletics, Utah360 -- download here.