Swim and Dive Successful on Both Sides of Split Meet

Friday, January 9

Los Angeles, CA

All Day

University of Utah

UCLA Diving Invite

Utah Utes Swim vs. Colorado Mesa at Ute Natatorium in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, October 31, 2025.
Doribel Buenrostro/Utah Athletics

Photo by: Doribel Buenrostro/Utah Athletics

Swim and Dive Successful on Both Sides of Split Meet

1/9/2026 5:30 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

Men’s swimming downs Denver while diving shows out in first day of UCLA Invite

DENVER – The University of Utah men's swim team improved to 5-0 in duals with a road win at Denver while the men's and women's diving teams opened competition at the UCLA Diving Invite, logging a pair of top-two finishes and four finals berths.

On the swimming front, Utah came out victorious in nine events en route to a 165-132 win over the Pioneers. Davis Stachelek led the way for the Utes with 18 points thanks to wins in the 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free Relay and 400 Medley Relay. Jakub Walter and Finn Winkler each contributed 12 points while Brandon Miller added 11.

"I think we had a decent meet today," head coach Jonas Persson said. "It was a hard travel day with some unexpected delays, which did not make it any easier for us. We came into this meet wanting to kickstart the spring semester here and get going again, and I think the men did a nice job with that and we collected a win, which is always the goal. We have some work to do, we have some more preparation to do, but we are in a really good spot moving forward."

In Los Angeles, Kathryn Grant won on the 1-meter springboard for the fourth time this season and was one of three Utes, alongside Callie Eaglestone and Emilia Nilsson Garip, to reach finals. Elias Petersen took second on the men's 3-meter board.

"This is an extremely difficult meet mentally and physically, it's a big meet against good competition," head diving coach Richard Marschner said. "We had a really, really nice day and we stuck with it throughout the competition. Katherine put up one of the highest scores I've ever seen here in the past 16 years we've been coming, and to win this event is amazing. Callie and Emilia taking top-10 finishes is awesome, so our women had a really strong showing."

Back in Denver, both Attila Bernatsky and Alex Just logged a pair of podium finishes in the diving events, with Bernatsky winning on 1-meter for the first time this season.

In the Pool
Utah stayed perfect in dual meets thanks to nine event wins in the water.

Nick Chirafisi touched the wall first in the 1000 Free at 9:26.45 while Owen Carlsen came in third at 9:38.70.
Jakub Walter took gold in the 200 Free with a 1:38.12 while Finn Winkler logged a third-place finish at 1:38.20.
Jackson Kehler and Nash Hale finished one-two in the 100 Back at 48.00 and 48.32, respectively.
Davis Stachelek and Nolan Dunkel took the top two spots on the podium of the 50 Free at 20.36 and 20.45. Stachelek also won in the 100 Free with a 44.55, while Dunkel set a collegiate best with a 45.32, finishing third.
Brandon Miller won gold in the 200 Back, his second win in the event this season, after touching the wall in 1:48.64.
Daniel Yi took silver in the 100 Breast and bronze in the 200 Breast.
Nolan Arnholt took second in the 500 Free with a 4:32.17, one spot ahead of Walter, who clocked a 4:36.54.
Evan VanBrocklin touched the wall second in the 100 Fly, clocking in at 48.01, finishing one spot ahead of Hale's 50.26.
The 400 Medley relay team of Hale, Caleb Gallagher, Dunkel and Stachelek took gold with a 3:14.06. Utah also won the 200 Free Relay as Stachelek, VanBrocklin, Jackson Kehler and Dunkel finished with a 1:20.78.

On the Boards
A pair of Utes logged top-two finishes and four reached finals as Utah opened competition at the UCLA Diving Invite in Los Angeles.

Kat Grant won on the 1-meter springboard for the fourth time this season, logging a combined score of 590.05 between the prelims and finals. Callie Eaglestone placed eighth with a 540.60 while Emilia Nilsson Garip came in 10th with a 534.55 total.
Elias Petersen was the lone Ute in the field on the men's 3-meter springboard, placing third with a 307.50.
In their first team event competition of the season, the Utah women placed third and fourth out of nine squads. Eaglestone, Cierra Cole and Sarah Kauffman combined to score a 267.25, narrowly edging out Grant, Nilsson Garip and Annalise Shrader's 258.70 for the podium spot.
In Denver, Attila Bernatsky placed first on the 1-meter springboard with a 317.00 while Alex Just scored a 314.65 to finish second. Just also finished second on the 3-meter at 316.55 while Bernatsky placed third with a 285.40 list score.

Up Next
Utah diving continues competition at the UCLA Diving Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 10, beginning at 11:30 a.m. MT. The Utah women's swim team is set to compete in a quad meet at UCLA as well on Saturday, taking on the Bruins, Iowa and UCSB at 11 a.m.

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