ST. GEORGE — The Utah Tech swimmers followed the runners’ lead by establishing program bests during the Trailblazer women’s weekend competitions last Friday-Saturday.
The swim team broke three school records and collected eight total event victories in a 155.5-137.5 dual meet loss Saturday at Idaho, according to the Utah Tech Athletics website.
Junior Pia Murray accounted for three of the Trailblazers’ seven individual event wins, along with two of the school records, and was part of Utah Tech’s meet-opening triumph in the 200-yard medley relay.
Junior Eleonore Rembert got off to a great start with a time of 26.07 seconds in the 50 back, while junior Skyler Lyon, Murray and freshman Ikea Losey won the 200 medley in 1:42.33.
Murray posted her first individual title in the 100 back with a record time of 53.91, while Rembert followed in second at 55.08. The Trailblazers would later sweep the top-three spots in the 200 back, led by Murray at 1:58.34, while Rembert touched the wall next at 2:03.34 and sophomore Ally Boynton placed third at 2:04.67.
Murray would then break her own school record in the 100 fly with an event-winning time of 54.25.
Freshman Reese Hazan would finish second behind Murray in the 100 fly at 56.10, which came on the heels of her shattering her own school record in the 200 fly by nearly four seconds with a 1:59.52 to claim victory in that event.
In addition, fellow freshman Lily Magda won 1,000 free with a time of 10:22.59 (No. 2 all-time ), followed by sophomore Paulina Sansores in second at 10:29.54. Sansores would later claim victory in the 500 free at 5:07.18, as did Lyon in the 100 breast at 1:03.30.
The Trailblazers then closed the meet with a runner-up finish in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:29.28 .
Utah Tech will host Northern Arizona to close out its 2022-23 regular season dual schedule Saturday, Jan. 28, at 11:30 a.m. at the HPC Pool.
In women’s track and field at the NAU Lumberjack Team Challenge on Friday afternoon in Flagstaff, Arizona, Megan Jenkins set a new school record in the 400 meters. She was clocked in 59.58 seconds and placed third.
“The team improved a lot from last week,” Head Coach Derrick Atkins said. “There were school records broken across the board and girls were hitting PRs. The team has made a lot of progress in the last week and at a tough place to compete they performed well.”
Addi Wyatt raced to a program-best in the 800, finishing in 2:20.23 and beating the old record by nearly eight seconds. Additionally, Sadie Edwards (2:22.62) and Camilla Hamilton (2:23.43) completed the top-3 sweep for the Trailblazers.
“Those are examples of athletes that are doing the work,” Atkins said. “They do the work on and off the track and it shows in the times they get and the athletes they are.”
But Utah Tech wasn’t done establishing news program bests.
The Trailblazers’ 1,600-meter relay team set a school best as the foursome of Jenkins, Wyatt, Mary Fallon and Alaynah Reed finished in 4:07.33.
In the high jump, three Trailblazers moved into the top three spots in the Utah Tech record book. Kylie Bishop led the way by clearing 1.57 meters, followed by Morgan Callens and Lainee Leavitt at 1.52 meters.
The Trailblazers will return to Flagstaff on Feb. 3 for the Ron Mann Classic. This will be the final tune-up before the 2023 Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships on Feb. 24-25 in Spokane, Washington.
Women’s tennis dropped two matches Friday afternoon, falling 7-0 and 5-0 to Utah.
In the morning, Utah took two wins in doubles play, but Rachel Mellor and Annemiek Sterk in the No. 1 spot stopped the Utes from a sweep. After fighting to send the match to a tiebreaker, a well-hit ball from Mellor clinched the tiebreaker win for the Blazers.
In singles play the Blazers had strong individual performances. Mellor continued strong play but was unable to find a set win with two narrow losses. Additionally, Ya-Chi Hsu was able to take her opponent to a tiebreaker but lost narrowly in the match point.
The Utes swept the Blazers 7-0 in Match 1 of the day.
In the afternoon matches, Utah Tech was unable to salvage a point out of the match. A shortened match found the Trailblazers falling 5-0 on the evening.
Utah Tech is now 0-2 in the 2023 season. The Trailblazers will be back in action on Feb. 3, at Idaho State with a 1 p.m. start.